Body mass index among school adolescents in Sokoto, North-Western Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Background: Reports have shown significant increase in the prevalence of obesity in developing countries. There are limited representative data available from African countries on the trends in childhood obesity; because most public health- and nutrition-related efforts have been focused on under-nutrition. Aims: To determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity using body mass index (BMI) among school adolescents. Design: A cross sectional study involving apparently healthy school students in Sokoto. Materials and Methods: Participating schools and students were selected by a multi-stage random sampling. Anthropometric measurements were done and body mass index derived from the ratio of weight per height squared. Subjects with age and sex-adjusted BMIs of 85 th to 95 th and ?95 th percentiles of the International Obesity Task Force were defined as overweight and obese; respectively. Statistical Analysis: Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.0 software. GraphPad inStat version 3.05 was also used to analyze some variables. Results were expressed as means with standard deviations. P-values 5 were considered significant. Results: The mean BMI of the male subjects was 18.3 ? 2.7kg/m 2 ; and 19.3 ? 3.1kg/m 2 for the females. The prevalence of overweight was 3.3; and that of obesity was 1.4. Conclusions: The prevalence of overweight and obesity appear to be low in the study area; especially when compared to some recent studies in Africa