Prevalence of overweight and obesity among junior high school students in a district of Tehran

Background: to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity among a sample of middle class junior highschool students in a district of tehran and its association with certain demographic and dietary factors this study wascarried out.methods: weight, height, waist and hip circumferences were measured and information on two-day food intake anddemographics on 398 students aged 10-15 years from district 6 in tehran were collected.results: prevalence of overweight and obesity in the studied girls were 19%,6.5% and in boys were 14%, 13%, respectively.there was an inverse relationship between numbers of siblings and bmi. overweight/obese students,bought snacks from school shops more frequently than other students did.conclusions: findings showed that the high prevalence of overweight/obesity can be related to the household size,including the number of siblings and the pattern of snack purchase by the students.