The prevalence of obesity in singapore primary school children

The purpose of this study is to survey the prevalence of obesity in Singapore primary school children from 1976 to 1980. The number of children screened comprised of 221,988 in primary I and 218,104 in primary VI. The male to female ratio was 1.04:1. Obesity is defined as body weight above 120% of Harvard standard weight for height. The overall prevalence rate was 3.51% with a significantly higher rate in boys (3.95%) than in girls (3.06%), p less than 0.0001. This sex difference prevailed in both the primary I and primary VI group. Furthermore, primary VI students had a higher prevalence rate (4.29%) compared to the primary I students (2.75%) p less than 0.0001. The prevalence rates were rising over the years with a rate of 5.33% in 1980 compared to that in 1976 (1.80%). Our observations suggest that the problem of obesity is an increasing one. The tendency to become obese increases with age and boys are more prone to obesity.