A survey conducted by AddressHealth, a company which provides healthcare services in schools, reveals that one in eight children (12 per cent) across all age groups are at risk of developing lifestyle/metabolic diseases in adulthood.
The survey which was conducted on 2,700 school kids aged from 4 to 16, by the company reveals some alarming trends on various health disorders in the children.
The data collected, during the academic year (2017-18) reveals that obesity is on the rise in the children with nearly 11 per cent being obese and 13 per cent being overweight.
Primary and middle school children were found to be more obese (12.3 per cent and 11.8 per cent, respectively) and overweight (13.2 per cent and 19.3 per cent respectively). Further, nearly 45 per cent of the children surveyed suffered from malnourished.
Commenting on the findings, Dr Anand Lakshman, Founder and CEO, Address Health, said, “The seeds of non-communicable diseases are unfortunately being sown early, prompted by a variety of factors including a sedentary lifestyle, change in diet patterns as well as inadequate focus on children’s health and well-being by many schools, and by many parents/guardians. This needs to be changed urgently.”
Other key findings:
- 8 per cent children of school children across various age groups have vision problems and nearly 1 in 4 children above class 1 need glasses
- More than 1 in 3 children suffer from cavities with preschool children having more cavities due to poor oral hygiene and eating habits
- 38 per cent of the total children surveyed across different age groups were also affected by cavities