Overweight and Obesity among Urban Bengalee Early Adolescent School Girls of Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

A dramatic increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity has occurred during the last few decades worldwide[1, 2] and is prevalent across gender and ethnic groups[3, 4]. Recent statistics also shows that prevalence of overweight continues to increase during the school age and pre-adolescent/adolescent stages[3]. In this stage children attain a rapid growth spurt, characterized by rapid linear growth and deposition of fat mass[3]. Many studies reported that girls had higher average of body fat mass than their boy counterparts[1, 4]. Abdominal obesity among girls is shown to be an emerging issue. Boys tend to deposit more fat free mass than fat mass while girls tend to deposit more fat mass than fat free mass[3]. Similar trend has also been demonstrated in Indian school-aged children[5]