Background: Once considered a high income country problem, overweight and obesity are now on the rise in low and middle income countries, particularly in urban settings. In Bangladesh, beside under nutrition over nutrition is an emerging health problem increasing steadily particularly among affluent society.

Methodology: This cross sectional study was conducted among 220 school going children aged 6 to 15 years during one-year period from February 2019 to January 2020. Children who had history of any chronic illness or were on drugs that may lead to weight gain were not included in this study. A self-administrative questionnaire was used to collect data. Health professionals took measurements of the participants' weight and height. Anthro Plus software from the World Health Organization was used to convert anthropometric data into a body mass index for age with a z-score to determine overweight and obesity. Microsoft Excel was used to enter data, which was then uploaded to SPSS version 22 for additional analysis.

Results: A simple random sample procedure was used to pick 220 school aged and adolescents between 6–15 years old for this study, with a response rate of 94.74 %. The respondents' average age was 13 years, with a standard deviation of ± 1.41. Overweight and obesity were found to be prevalent in 14% of the study population. Male children were more overweight and obese than female children. Our data suggest that, children who participated in more physical activities, such as playing typical outdoor games, were less likely to be overweight or obese, and thatadolescent group, prolonged sedentary duration and unhealthy eating behavior was linked to overweight and obesity among study population.

Conclusion: Prevalence of pediatric overweight and obesity is in increasing trend among Bangladeshi school aged children and adolescent due to a lack of adequate physical activity, high level of sedentary behavior and increased consumption of junk foods. Due to future burden of this problem various preventive strategies to combat childhood overweight and obesity need to be adopted and implemented besides creating awareness among children and their families.

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Dr Gulshan Akhtar

Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Green Life Medical College, Dhaka