ESPE Abstracts

Background: Although the highest prevelance rates of childhood obesity and overweihgt have been observed in developed countries, its prevelance is reported to be increasing in developing countries as well. Prevelance of obesity and overweight in different regions of Turkey ranges between 1.6–7.8 and 9.9–17.6 respectively.

Objective and hypotheses: The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevelance of obesity and overweight among students between the ages of 5 and 20 in rural and urban areas of İzmir, Western Turkey.

Method: This population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 36 schools (12 primary, 12 secondary, and 12 high schools) in rural and urban areas of İzmir between September 2015–February 2016. A total of 2447 children and adolescents in 5–20 age range were involved in the study. BMI of the participants were compared using the BMI references for Turkish children and adolescents.

Results: The mean age was 12.43±3.32; 52.7% of the children were female and 47.3% of them were male. It was identified that 16% of all children were obese and 12.1% were overweight. This findings revealed that the prevelances of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents were higher than a previously conducted study in İzmir (obesity 6.3%, overweight 9.9%). There was no statistically significant prevalence difference between age, gender, school level, rural and urban areas. The prevalence of obesity according to gender was 16.3% for girls and 15.8% for boys (P>0.05). There was significantly important difference between the prevelance of obesity and overweight among the families of obese and over weight children (P<0.001).

Conclusion: Obesity and overweight are concerns for children and adolescents in both rural and urban areas. Having obese parent(s) appears to be a risk factor for obesity in childhood. Further studies investigating the etiopathology of the corresponding disorders in the region is being conducted.