Delhi’s pvt school students 5 times more obese than public counterparts: Study

A new study by the AIIMS Delhi has revealed that there is a rise in obesity and overweight among students in public and private schools of Delhi.

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The study, financed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), tracked the health of 3,888 students aged between 6 and 19 across Delhi’s schools. Of this, 1,985 students were from public schools and 1,903 from private schools.

The findings revealed that obesity among adolescents in private schools was over five times higher than those in public schools.

The combined prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents aged 6-19 years is nearly four times higher in private schools (46.72% vs 12.11%) than in public schools.

The study conducted in 2022 also said there is a lack of data in India regarding the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on obesity and underweight.

The study said obesity could be due to unhealthy eating behaviours, disrupted sleep patterns, reduced physical activity and increased screen time during the prolonged Covid-19 lockdown.

Researchers also said the prevalence of hypertension was also observed among students.

“Obesity, a precursor of various non-communicable diseases (NCDs), is notably prevalent among affluent adolescents, exceptionally high among younger children compared to adolescents and boys compared to girls. Substantially, high metabolic obesity among normal weight and underweight children, particularly from public schools, warrants early intervention. Therefore, future research efforts should focus on developing robust and sensitive parameters for early identification and active surveillance. Existing public health programmes should be strengthened with focused approaches, such as ensuring food security, promoting physical activity and implementing periodic metabolic risk screening to reduce cardio-metabolic burden,” the study concluded.