Obesity among years 1 and 6 primary school children in Selangor Darul Ehsan

A study was conducted from March to June 1991 to determine the prevalence of obesity among primary school children in the State of Selangor. One School Health Team in each of the 9 Districts of Selangor participated in the collection of data, the whole project being coordinated by the Selangor State Health Department. A total of 28 rural and 24 urban schools were selected for the study, involving a total of 2,688 pupils in Standard 1 and Standard 6. The prevalence of obesity, using >120% of the reference weight-for-height as the criteria, varied considerably in the different districts, with an overall prevalence of 7.8% in the State. The proportion of boys affected (66.7%) was twice that among girls (33.3%). The prevalence of obesity of 9.8% in the urban schools was significantly higher than the 6.1% found for rural schools (p<0.0001). 151 (11.1%) were from Standard 6 and 59 (4.4%) were from Standard 1 (p<0.0001). It was also found that there was a significantly higher prevalence of obesity amongst primary 6 children (p<0.0001). Whilst the problem may not be as serious as that found in developed countries, the findings of this study should serve as an early warning to health authorities of the seriousness of the problem.