Childhood obesity and the role of physical education

Abstract

The term overweight and obesity often are used interchangeably, but technically they have different meanings. Overweight is defined as a bodyweight that exceeds the normal or standard weight for a particular person based on height and frame size. Obesity refers to the condition of having an excessive amount of body fat. Men with more than 25% body fat and women with more than 35% should be considered obese. Body mass index, or BMI, is a widely used screening tool for measuring both overweight and obesity. BMI percentile is preferred for measuring children and young adults (ages 2–20) because it takes into account that they are still growing, and growing at different rates depending on their age and sex. Health professionals use growth charts to see whether a child’s weight falls into a healthy range for the child’s height, age, and sex. Now a day, Childhood obesity is a great health problem all over the world. India is a country, where child malnutrition rates still remain high in many states at the same time childhood obesity is another growing health problem. Childhood obesity has immediate and long term impacts on physical, social and emotional health. Children with obesity are higher risk for having other chronic health conditions and diseases that impact physical health such as asthma, sleep apnea, bone and joint problems, type two diabetes and heart diseases. The role of physical education plays a significant role to control childhood obesity.