About 30 Percent Children of Private Schools Obese: Study

Close to 30 percent of children in private schools were found to be obese, according to a study carried out by Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

The study covered around 1,000 students from eight private schools and it found most were pre-diabetic and hypertensive. Ten percent of the newly diagnosed diabetics were in the age group of 10-18 years.

The findings of the survey, which was conducted in 2016, were shared at a Symposium on Adolescent Obesity organized by the Institute of Minimal Access, Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

About 300 obese children and adolescents were provided free consultations and dietary advice along with body fat analysis at the event.

On the occasion, a retrospective analysis of 1,078 patients who underwent weight loss surgery at the institute between 2010 and 2018 was also presented.

"We found that 23 percent of the patients were obese in their childhood or adolescence, and they went ahead to become morbidly obese and required surgery for their medical conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, infertility etc," Sudhir Kalhan, chairman of IMAS said.

"We operated on 123 patients who were between 15-21 years of age over last eight years. They lost 81 percent of their excess body weight at one year follow up.

"In this analysis, we found that most of these patients were an obese due sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy food habits. Many of them were siblings and obesity was related to genes," Vivek Bindal, vice-chairman of IMAS said.

Almost 73 percent of diabetic obese patients had their diabetic condition reversed after undergoing bariatric surgery he added.

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