Prevalence of Obesity Among Preparatory School Female Adolescents In Dakhlia Governorate

The present study aimed to estimate the prevalence of obesity among preparatory school female adolescents in Dakahlia governorate and finding out the associated risk factors.The study was a cross sectional one carried out on sample of 300 students. The sample was divided into 150 students in an urban school and 150 students in a rural one. The data were collected through a questionnaire containing socio-demographic characteristics, feeding and life style factors. Then, the data were analyzed by using SPSS version 15 soft ware computer package.Results showed that, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the urban school were (20% and 10.7%) respectively and in the rural school were (19.3% and 9.3%) respectively. But according to pattern of fat distribution, the highest percentage of obese students had peripheral obesity in both urban and rural samples (62.5 % and 57.2 %) respectively. There were significant association between overweight & obesity and parents’ education and fathers’ occupation, but there were no significant association with working status of the mothers.There were significant association between overweight & obesity and breakfast skipping, snacks taking, eating while watching television, fast food consumption and hours of television watching, but there were no significant association with both numbers of meals and physical exercises. There was insignificant difference between the rural and urban areas according to pattern of fat distribution.