Prevalence of some risk factors for non-communicable diseases among schoolchildren / Монголын Анагаах Ухаан

ABSTRACT

Introduction: According to the statistical data of health organization 43% of all diseases and 60% of all deaths are due to chronic diseases including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus and cancer. Many factors contribute to the wide spread of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)1. As defined in the World Health Report 2002, many common risk factors such as unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol use, overweight, raised blood pressure, raised total cholesterol levels and blood sugar are the most prevalent risk factors among the world population. In conclusion, the Mongolian NCD STEPs survey of 2006 revealed that 9 in every 10 people had at least one risk factors for developing NCDs. One in every 5 people had three and more risk factors for developing NCD3. However, partial studies of NCDs, which are dominant in Mongolia, had been conducted previously; the possibilities of wide use of the results are limited and those studies covered only adult people. So it is very important to evaluate knowledge about nutrition and food, tendency and practical experience about life style, activity of motion and use of food among the children.Objective: The goal of the study was to determine the prevalence of risk factors for NCDs among schoolchildren and to develop recommendation and suggestion for prevention of non communicable diseases.Materials and Methods: The survey covered 1504 students, studying in 20 middle and high schools, which are located 5 districts of UB, and was conducted by cross-sectional methods using questionnaire and anthropometric measurements (height, weight and BMI).Results and Conclusion: 31.3% of surveyed population did not consume any serving size of fruits per day, 68.7% consumed less than 5 serving sizes. The second common source of fat was fatty meat and butter. The prevalence of tobacco use was 6.1% of the surveyed population. School children do sedentary work, which has low energy consumption, after class. They watch TV for 3.53±1.24 hours and work on computer 2.83±1.07 hours a day. Percentage of the students who involved in some kind of sports activities is 71.2%, whereas 28.8% of them do not do any physical exercise. The reason why they do not participate in sports activities was determined as follows do not have enough free time 37.2%, do not like sports 5.3%, due to high fees 35.1%, and inconvenient locations of sport facilities 18.2%. Although the laws, resolutions and regulations, supporting public sports are enough, the structure and action of the units that implement, evaluate and control these laws and regulations are weak.