"Only 19 per cent of the school children were found to be engaged in outdoor activities in our study, while 90 per cent of the obese children did not engage in any outdoor activity at all, Kapil said.

The research, involving 870 children, was carried out in a public school of Delhi catering to the affluent segment of population. It reported overall prevalence of obesity as 7.4 per cent. An earlier study in 1990 had reported almost similar prevalence of obesity, according to the paper published in the science journal Indian Pediatrics.

Kapil said prevalence of a disorder above five per cent was a public health problem. These children would grow into adults and were likely to contribute to ever increasing burden of non-communicable diseases, he said. "Once obese, child remains so in adulthood and even old age. Obesity also leads to hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, gall stones, osteoarthritis and diabetes," he said.

Kapil said children from affluent sections were frequenting fast food joints more often, were engaged in indoor activities like watching television and computer games and doing less physical activity. With affluence, there is a tendency to enhance consumption of costly fatty items and oil.
This led to positive calorific balance with children eating more calories than spending. Forty-50 years back, children used to engage in more of outdoor activity, he said. A large number of children in the study had high calorific intake and visited fast food joints. Besides, most of the children had to skip their morning breakfast as they had to leave for schools early. In the school, they would consume oily canteen stuff. He said 28 per cent of children visited fast food joints once a week and 18 per cent visited twice a week.

Only 19 per cent of all children were engaged in outdoor activities - 38 per cent entertained through TV, 21 per cent through computer, 10 per cent by music and eight were engaged in reading.The study also related obesity with nuclear families stating that 65 per cent of the children in the study were from nuclear families. Kapil said in nuclear families there is no dearth of funds which might lead to children spending money on fatty food.

The phenomenon is prevalent in other parts of the world as well - during the past 20 years, prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents has doubled in the US, the study said.
According to the statistics available with the US National Centre for Health, nearly 15 per cent of adolescents are overweight (when ratio of weight and height is between 25 and 30) or obese (when this ratio is more than 30), it said.

The paper said the maximum prevalence of obesity was found during the pubertal period, between 10 and 12 years. This may be associated with the increase in fat tissues and overall weight gain during the pubertal growth spurt.

Kapil explained that one factor for this may be that children at this age start getting independent pocket money, which they might be spending on fatty eatables in school canteens.
He said problem was that children were unaware of their nutritional needs, adding, adolescent education programmes should be introduced in schools.