The Comparative Study of Obesity Differences for Schoolchildren between Turkman and Sisstanish Ethnic Groups in the North of Iran

Background and purpose: overweight and obesity are the health problem in adolescents andthe main purpose of this study was to evaluate this problem and some socio-demographicrelatedfactors among two ethnic groups in iranian northern primary school children in 2010.materials and methods: this was a descriptive and cross-sectional study that performed on4165 students (turkman = 2852and sisstani = 1313) from 112 schools in urban and rural area.the schools and students were chosen by cluster nad random sampling, respectively. datacollected by questioner which contain, questions on the social-economical condition of schoolchildren specially ethnicity, gender, location area, and economic status, for all samples throughinterview. overweight and obesity classified based on the body mass index (bmi) cut off pointsof centers for disease control values (in excess of the 85th and 95th percentiles, respectively).spss.win16 software was used for analysis.results: linear regression analyzes revealed that weight, height, and bmi increase 2.70 kg,4.62 cm and 0.42 kg in boys (p < 0.001) and 3.12 kg, 5.19 cm and 0.52 kg in girls (p < 0.001)every year, respectively. in total, overweight was common in 8.4% and obesity was common in11.9% of students and they were statistically significant among two ethnic groups (p = 0.001)so, in turkman group (14.1%) is more than in sisstanish ethnic group (10.6%). as a result oflogistic regression analyzes, the risk of overweight and obesity was 1.847 (1.546-2.208,confidence interval [ci] 95%) in turkman group compared to sisstanish ethnic group and itwas 2.297 (1.911-2.761, ci 95%) in good economic group compared to poor economic group.conclusion: totally, one to seven of schoolchildren suffer from obesity and overweight andthey were in turkman ethnic group more than in sisstanish ethnic groups. the important publichealth training about obesity for children especially in the urban area and high-income familiesemphasizes in this study.