The Relationship Between Leisure Activities Pattern & Body Mass Index in Girl students in Elementary Schools in Tabriz

Nowadays the rise in the prevalence of overweight and obesity(OW/OB) in children is one of the most alarming public health issues facing the world.Overweighed Children are facing the risk of obesity and obesity in adulthood and itscomplications. Various studies have indicated direct relationship between lifestyle andobesity. Therefore, the present study has been investigated to determine the relationshipbetween lifestyle pattern as one of the important indicator of lifestyle and body massindex in elementary school girls of Tabriz. This is a descriptive study done in Tabriz (2009) in which 1500students (age range of 7-11) were selected as a sample through a randomize clustersampling. Height and weight of children were measured by standard methods fordetermination body mass index (BMI). Based on CDC criteria, the students were dividedinto four following categories: below the 5th percentile as "underweight ", 5-85percentile as "normal weight", 85-95 percentile of the standard as "overweight" andabove the 95th percentile as "obese". The other demographic data were gathered byobtaining parental consent and filling the research questionnaires. Statistical analysiswere done by SPSS/16 comparing the means by using Kruskal-Wallis tests, Mann-Whitney and Spearman correlation for studing correlation between them. The results of the study showed that 73 percent of school girls were normalweight, 12.5% were overweight, 5.8 % obese, and 8/6% underweight. There was asignificant relationship (p = 0 / 04), between the hours of watching television and BMIamong the subjects, while there was no relationship between BMI and the number ofhours that they play computer games, and hours that they study or read books. Although this study could not clearly show the correlation between BMI andLeisure activities pattern in girls, there were average differences between the obesity andoverweight groups which was significant in the number of TV-watching hours. Thereforeit seems that TV-watching plays an effective role (more than the other sources) in theincidence of child obesity and overweight. There is a need for prevention of childhoodobesity with emphasis on improving the pattern of leisure activities.