Obesity amongst affluent adolescent girls

To assess the prevalence and type of obesity in affluent schoolgirls aged 16 and 17 yr.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2002, in 4 randomly selected public schools of Delhi. All girls from randomly chosen classes were included. Weight, height and waist and hip circumferences were measured for all 414 schoolgirls and their socio-demographic profile was recorded. Body mass index [BMI] and waist hip ratio [WHR] were calculated for all the girls. BMI > 30 (i.e.--95th percentile) denotes obesity and BMI > 25 (i.e.--85th percentile) denotes overweight as according to International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) criteria. WC > 80 cm or WHR > 0.85 denote central obesity.

Prevalence of obesity and overweight amongst the study subjects was 5.3% and 15.2% respectively (IOTF). Out of the 22 obese girls central obesity was present in 21 girls (95.4%) [WC > 80 cm] and 12 girls (54.5%) [WHR > 0.85].

There is significant prevalence of obesity in affluent schoolgirls in Delhi and more than half of them have central obesity.