Prevalence of obesity in children enrolled in private and public primary schools

Background: Obesity is a growing scourge in Africa. More and more children are exposed to it. This study was designed to assess obesity in children enrolled in private and public primary schools in three communes in the health district of Abidjan, in the south of Cote d'Ivoire. Methods: This study involved 1251 children enrolled in six schools due to two schools per municipality (Cocody, Yopougon and Treichville) including 587 boys and 664 girls aged 5-15 years. Children were recruited from private and public primary schools. Anthropometric parameters (Weight, Height, waist circumference, Body mass index) and blood pressure were measured. Data on eating habits were collected using a questionnaire. Results: Overall, 1251 children were enrolled, or 592 and 659 children in private and public primary schools, respectively. The majority of the children (54.2% [678/1251]) were of normal weight. However, 35.5%, 7.8% and 2.4% of the children were, respectively, underweight, overweight and obese. Overweight including obesity was 10.2%. Overweight and abdominal obesity were common among girls compared to boys (chi(2) = 0.113, P = 0.001). The low obesity rate (2.4%) observed in our study is probably due to the fact that children are very active. The prevalence of hypertension in overweight people, including obese, was 20.3%. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure was influenced by both BMI and gender with higher systolic (chi(2) = 0.142, P = 0.001) and diastolic (chi(2) = 0.135, P = 0.001) blood pressure observed in girls. Conclusion: Our study points out that in addition to a sedentary lifestyle; obesity is also linked to the socio-economic status and daily diet of children. We recommend introducing and operationalizing sports activity in the education system in order to reduce the frequency of obesity and its corollary of metabolic diseases among children. (C) 2020 European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.