overweight and obesity among preschool children from fars province of iran: prevalence and associated factors

Background: the global prevalence of overweight and obesity had risen in recent decades, and obesity is taken into consideration as a public health concern and a major risk factor of common chronic disease. the objective of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity and to identify its underlying factors among children 2-6 yr of age in fars province, southern iran. methods: a total of 8911 children, aged 2-6 yr age, were selected thorough multi-stage sampling in 30 cities of fars province in 2012-13. overweight and obesity status was assessed through comparison by standard bmi for age and for sex percentiles (nchs/cdc). in addition, socio-demographic measures obtained from structured questionnaire were compared between normal and overweight plus obese (ow/ob) groups. we used backward stepwise logistic regression, chi-square and independent sample t-test to relate the underlying factors to the nutritional indices. results: the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 5.7% (95% ci: 5.2%, 6.1%) and 5.2% (95% ci: 4.7%, 5.6%), respectively. the ow/ob was significantly correlated with male sex, urbanization, type of father’s occupation, universal education of mothers, the higher birth weight, low access to household facilities, and not using health-care services (p<0.05). besides, the logistic regression analysis showed urbanization (or=1.46, ci: 1.26, 1.70), second sibling (or=1.183, ci: 1.00, 1.39), and less access to a variety of food groups (or=1.32, ci: 1.05, 1.65) as ow/ob risk factors. conclusions: the rate of overweight and obesity in the study population is at an alarming level. therefore, a preventive program is needed to control ow/ob since early childhood considering the underlying factors for each region and individual groups.