KARACHI, Aug 18: In the current health scenario when an overwhelming number of children are living below the poverty line and experiencing such ailments as malnutrition, diarrhoea, TB, Vitamin-A deficiency and other life threatening diseases, children of the affluent segments of society are facing obesity problems due to eating more processed food, chocolates, ice cream and other junk food.

In an interview, Dr S. Mohammad Afaq, deputy director of the National Institute of Child Health (NICH), said that through a survey, it was learnt that 5 per cent of children living in affluent areas of the city are fast developing obesity similar to their peers in the developed world.

“The indicators used to identify obesity or overweight adolescents have not been standardized, however various measures used in literature are body weight for the age, weight height indexes and skin fold thickness” he revealed.

He said that skin fold thickness measurements are more widely used for this purpose and data on skin fold measurement carried out in developed countries reveals that obesity continues to be one of the most pervasive and persistent health problems, and that the picture is similar in the rich classes and families of developing countries like Pakistan.

“For age groups, girls were at a higher risk compared to boys and this trend of substantial increase in obesity prevalence among (the) young population has alarmed health care providers regarding (the) seriousness of the problem. The most important disorders (to) which obesity contributes (to) are cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and psychosocial disability disorders.”—PPI