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The Prevalence of Underweight, Overweight and Obesity Among Primary School Learners in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of body weight disorders among primary school learners in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Materials and Methods: A school based cross-sectional survey was conducted among 876 primary school learners aged 9-14 years, using multistage sampling techniques. Body mass, stature and body mass index (BMI) were calculated. Results: Out of 876 participants, 61.8% were underweight, 32.3% were normal, 3.8% were overweight and 2.1% were obese. The prevalence of underweight was significantly higher (n = 541; 61.8%), as compared to other BMI classifications. Boys had higher prevalence of underweight (n = 251; 70.5%), as compared to the girls (n = 290; 55.8%). About 70.5% boys were underweight, 27.3% were normal, 1.1% were overweight and 1.1% were obese, whereas, 55.8% girls were underweight, 35.8% were normal, 5.6% were overweight and 2.9% were obese. The highest prevalence of underweight (77.7%) was observed in the age group 9-10 years followed by the age group 11-12 years (62.7%), which showed a significant association between age and BMI. The high number of underweight children were in rural (n = 298; 64.8%) and semi-urban (n = 144; 60.3%) areas, as compared to urban areas (n = 99; 56.3%). Conclusion: The high prevalence of underweight among the primary school learners in the study setting requires a serious stakeholder intervention strategy.
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Body mass index, body weight, nutritional status, primary school, South AfricaArticle Metrics
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Copyright (c) 2019 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Gomwe, H., Seekoe, E., Goon, D. T., Lyoka, P., & Marange, C. S. (2019). The Prevalence of Underweight, Overweight and Obesity Among Primary School Learners in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Pakistan Journal of Nutrition, 18(7), 644–649. https://doi.org/10.3923/pjn.2019.644.649
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