Relationship between screen watching and overweight or obesity in a Sample of Iraqi adolescents

Abstract

Background: Obesity represents a clear and
present danger to the health of children and
adolescents. Its prevalence among American
youth has doubled in the past 3 decades, and
there are now more overweight and obese
adults in the United States than adults of
normal weight.
Objectives of the study:
1- Finding whether screen watching among
adolescents has an effect on increasing
prevalence overweight and obesity.
2- The effect of other variables like physical
activity, eating in front of screen, eating under
stress on obesity and overweight among the
subjects sample.
Patients &Methods: During 3 months period a
cross sectional survey was conducted on 4
high schools at Baghdad with total sample of
500 subjects using time table to assess screen
watching hours per week,
Results:Higher percentagesof overweight &
obesity were found among female adolescents
than males, significant associations was
obvious among total sample & male sample
betweenthe level of physical activity &
BMI,while there was no significant
association among female sample for the same
variables , There was obvious significant
association between BMI a time spending in
screen watching, eatingin front of screen, ,
eating under stressin the total & male samples.
Conclusion: Increased levels of physical
activity are associated with a lower BMI and
less time spent on screen watching .in addition
.stress-induced eating may be one factor
contributing to the development of obesity;
furthermore habits like eating in front of
screen could increase BMI of an adolescent.