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[% fat of Nepali children (ranging from 6 to 18 years old) having different living style]
Insights
Modernization increases body fat in Nepali children. Urban lifestyles, marked by reduced physical activity, contribute to higher body fat percentages compared to rural lifestyles.
Area of Science:
- Human Biology
- Pediatric Health
- Nutritional Science
Context:
- Investigating the impact of modernization and urbanization on children's health in Nepal.
- Comparing body composition between children in rural (KV) and suburban (BV) districts.
- Assessing the role of lifestyle changes in the rising prevalence of childhood obesity.
Purpose:
- To determine the causes of obesity in Nepali children associated with modernization.
- To compare body fat percentages (%Fat) between children in rural and urbanizing environments.
- To identify factors contributing to differences in body fat between the two groups.
Summary:
- A comparative study measured %Fat in Nepali children (6-18 years) from rural (KV) and suburban (BV) districts.
- Suburban children (BV) exhibited significantly higher %Fat than rural children (KV), particularly males.
- Differences in %Fat were attributed to reduced physical activity in the suburban group, with no significant nutritional factors identified.
Impact:
- Highlights the detrimental effects of urbanization on children's body composition.
- Provides evidence for the critical role of physical activity in preventing childhood obesity.
- Informs public health strategies for promoting healthy lifestyles in developing urbanizing populations.
Abstract:
A comparative study of % fat was carried out on Nepali children (Ranging from 6 to 18 years old) to clarify the cause of obesity attended with modernization. 126 males and 79 females who have a natural living style, in rural district (KV) and 166 males and 133 who have a living style affected by the rapid urbanization, in suburban district (BV) were selected as subjects. %Fat was estimated from skinfold thickness according to the method of Nagamine (1975). The results summarized as follows. 1) Mean %Fat of BV in each age were clearly higher than those of KV with coincidental age, especially in male subjects. 2) According to the previous reports (Yoshimizu et al., 1990; Ito et al., 1989), it's considered physical activities in the subjects of BV were lower than those of the subjects in KV. But we could not found the nutritional factors to explain the difference of % fat between BV and KV. From these results, it's considered the difference of % fat in both districts is due to the difference of their physical activities.