WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

*Zakarea Ibrahim Ismael Sheet, Entesar M. Ali Hameed and Ekhlas Ahmed Faraj

ABSTRACT

Background: Childhood obesity has a significant impact o n healthcare systems and remains a barrier to medical innovation. Despite a reported increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity globally and the potential contributions of numerous risk factors to these trends, there is little information available re garding the relationship between the major risk factors and the development of overweight and obesity in Mosul. Objectives: Is to evaluate various risk factors and complications related of childhood overweight and obesity in Mosul City. Methods: The study is a descriptive, case control study. It was conducted between the 11th of March 2023 to the end of February 2025 at Wafa’a Endocrine specialized center and Al Sukar primary health care center in Mosul. The questionnaire was divided into three parts. The first section provides demographic information about the study participants, including their age, gender, residency, family history of overweight or obesity and school class in addition to their parents’ educational levels, occupation and social class. The second part covers personal and environmental factors, such as physical inactivity, meals per day and television watching or internet use hours. The third part covers anthropometric measures, such as patient weight, height, calculated BMI and BMI percentile. Results : The study included 200 child, of them 100 child with overweight and obesity (cases) and 100 child with normal weight (controls). Moreover; 106 (53%) child are males and 94 (47%) child are females, with male to female ratio of 1.12:1. Furthermor e; 110 (55%) child aged less than 9 years and 90 (45%) child aged between 9 14 years. The mean age of the study participants was 9.24 ± 1.79 years. 141 (70.5%) child are reside in urban districts while 69 (29.5%) child are reside in rural districts. 183 (9 1.5%) child attended school and 17 (8.5%) child didn’t attend school. Additionally; 74 (37%) child reported positive family history of obesity. It’s evident that been physically inactive is in significantly associated risk (odds ratio= 5.588) and statistic ally different (P value <0.001) with overweight or obesity. Moreover; children with overweight and obesity are in in significantly associated risk (odds ratio= 12.25) and statistically different (P value <0.001) with five and more meals intake per day. Add itionally; children with overweight and obesity are statistically significant difference from those with normal weight with more TV or internet spending time. Dyslipidemia is prevalent among 21 (21%) child, hypertension among 16 (16%) child, sleep apnea am ong 14 (14%) child, the same for depression and anxiety 14 (14%) child and lastly; two 2 diabetes among 11 (11%) child among the overweight or obese children. Conclusion: Physical inactivity, eating five or more meals per day, and watching television were found to be risk factors for weight gain. Promoting outdoor exercise and implementing functional health and nutrition education programs in schools are important preventiv e measures for children. Overweight and obesity might be regarded diseases rather than just physical characteristics, as they are associated with a variety of clinical complications that influence patient survival and health.