Overweight in Students and Its Relationship with the Lifestyle: A Cross Sectional Study in Birjand, 2014

Introduction: Student overweight is the most mutual health problem among students. Lifestyle change to immobility is one of the main causes of increasing non-communicable diseases like overweight. The aim of this study was to evaluate overweight in students and its relationship with lifestyle. Methods: In this case-control study, 100 obese students of Birjand, Iran in 2014, and 100 healthy controls matched for age and sex, were randomly selected. Overweight was diagnosed by BMI > 85th reference percentiles. Data were collected via questionnaire. Data were examined using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 16 (SPSS Inc. Chicago, IL) for windows. Results: One hundred students (54 males and 46 females) with an average age of 14.45 ± 1.45 years as a case group and 100 students matched for age and sex (51 males and 49 females) with an average age of 14.65 ± 1.60 years as a control group were analyzed. Students with a higher economic level of households were significantly more obese (P = 0. 01). It was, in addition, associated with overweight index (P = 0.049), hyperlipidemia (P = 0.001) in Parents, low physical activity and dietary habits. There was no significant relationship between overweight in students and other factors (P = 0.05). Conclusions: According to our findings, overweight in students had a correlation with overweight and hyperlipidemia in their parents. We also concluded that calories from protein and carbohydrates were associated with an increased body mass index.