Increased Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in Birjand Adolescents Aged 15-18 Years from 2005 to 2012

increased risk of metabolic syndrome. In addition, obesity in young age increases the risk of adult obesity, diabetes, hypertension and is associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in adulthood[4]. In Iran, like many developing countries, obesity in adolescents has increased in recent years due to lifestyle changes, nutrition transition and physical inactivity[5-8]. A cross-sectional study was carried out on 1104 school children, aged 15-18 years (614 girls and 490 boys) in Birjand, a city in eastern Iran from November to February 2012. Subjects were selected through multiple-cluster sampling. Aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity in these groups. Weight and height of each subject was measured in standard manner. Then, body mass index (BMI) was measured. 85-95th percentiles were considered as overweight and ≥95th percentile as obese. Mean age of the subjects was 15.8±1.2 years, mean BMI 21.3±3.9. 6.5% (8.2% of boys and 5.2% of girls) were overweight and 8.2% of the children (7.8% of boy’s and.9% of girls) were obese.