A Comparative Study Of Overweight And Obesity Among Basic School Pupils From Selected Schools In The Asante Akim Central Municipality.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine and compare the prevalence of obesity among private and public basic school pupils in the Asante Akim central municipality using a cross sectional survey. A total of 200 children from private and public schools were selected using the simple random sampling technique. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire, a food frequency questionnaire, the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children (PAQ-C) and anthropometry. The data obtained from the structured and food frequency questionnaires were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS version 20) to generate frequency and percentage distributions. Data from the PAQ-C was analysed using the PAQ-C scoring manual to determine the physical activity levels of the school pupils. BMIs of the pupils were computed using the Microsoft Excel software. The WHO BMI-for-age reference chart was used to classify the nutritional status of pupils. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to test five hypotheses at 5% level of significance (p=0.05). The age of the pupils ranged between 9 and 15 years with a mean age of 11.9±1.46. Almost all (95%) the parents or guardians of pupils were employed with 40% of them being traders. Over three quarters of the pupils in both private and public schools (91% vs 81%) ate at least 3 meals daily. Foods consumed on daily basis included corn, rice, bread, meat, fish, gari, plantain, oranges, bananas, tomatoes, onions, pepper and refined vegetable oil. Seventy three percent (73%) of private pupils and 83% of public pupils ate at least one snack a day. Snack foods consumed were biscuits, ice cream, pastries and sugar flavored drinks. The main physical activities pupils engaged in for exercise weekly were walking, jogging, dance, skipping, soccer and ‘‘ampe’’. Even though public school pupils had a higher physical activity level than the private school pupils, the level of physical activity was generally low among the study sample. Only 22% achieved the recommended moderate activity level. The study revealed an overall obesity prevalence of 5.5%, overweight prevalence of 17% and a thinness rate of 3%. Overweight and obesity were higher among private pupils than in public pupils. From the study, 74.5% of the study sample were classified as normal. From the hypotheses tested, there was a significant difference in the physical activity levels of the pupils, there was no significant difference between obesity and the socio- economic status of private and public pupils. Also, there was no significant difference between the socio-economic status of parents of pupils in private and public schools and finally, there was a statistically significant difference between obesity rates of private and public school pupils. Based on the findings of the study it was concluded that, the combined prevalence of overweight and obesity was 22.5%. The types of physical activities usually engaged in by school pupils were walking, jogging, dance, skipping, soccer and ‘‘ampe’’. Though public school pupils had higher physical activity levels than the private school pupils, physical activity levels among both groups was generally low. It was therefore recommended that parents and school authorities assist pupils through the formation of nutrition clubs to make practical efforts to achieve normal body weights by improving their dietary practices through the eating of balanced meals and exercise.