Prevalence of over and under weight among school children in Mosul

Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of over and under weight in children aged 6-14 years in Mosul city and to observe the important risk factors. Methods: A cross-sectional study of four governmental primary schools in Mosul city with a total of 2056 child aged 6-14 years were included. Analysis of the data was done by using SPSS and excel computer systems, X2 test was used for statistical analysis. Results: The study reveals that the prevalence of under weight is 6.8%; on the other hand the prevalence of over weight and obesity were 11.3% and 9.8% respectively. Also the study shows that about three quarters of over weight and obese students spend three or more hours daily in watching television, and (44.2%) of them eat more than three meals per day. Conclusions: Overweight and obesity are prevalent problems in Mosul, it is valuable to conduct a study to evaluate the risk factors.