In industrialized countries, the epidemic of obesity is soaring, both in adults than in children. Or overweight and childhood obesity persist into adulthood and are accompanied bymany serious complications.
Since 1999, Ministries of Education, Health and the Institut National de Veille Sanitaire (InVS) undertook several surveys on the health of schoolchildren.
One, conducted in a large section of kindergarten during the 1999-2000 school year, estimatedprevalence of overweight and obesity at 14% among children 5-6 years. More recently, in 2001-2002, the prevalence was estimated at up to20% among 10-11 yearsCM2 class.
For the development of targeted prevention and education, medical school departmentHaute-Savoiehave embarked on a new study in September 2003 with 6th pupils in public colleges (11-12 years). In total, forty classes were chosen in sixteen schools.
Overweight each participant was defined by calculating thebody mass index(BMI), based on height and weight. Meanwhile, the children answered a questionnaire about their eating habits (number and composition of meals, snacks, soft drinks ...) and lifestyle (leisure, sport, outdoor games, etc.)..
Physical inactivity has been estimated from the frequency of daily time spent watching television or playing a video game.
The analysis of these data shows that15.7% of college studentswere overweight, including 13.6% in moderately overweight and 2.1% obese. For 83% of students, the value of BMI when they were younger was known: at the age of 5-6 years, 12.1% of these students were overweight, including 9.7% in overweight and moderate 2.4% obese. The prevalence of overweight has been increased in recent years and many children were overweight at 5-6 years, are still in 11-12 years.
The authors find no association between being overweight and consumption of sweets and sugary drinks, habits of outdoor games and the weekly frequency of sports outside of school.
In contrast, overweight is more often found among children who watched television in the evening usually on school days and afternoons day of rest.
'The act of watching television or playing video gamesmore than twice per dayduring school days was significantly associated with overweight. '
The conclusion is drawn by itself. To protect children from obesity:
- no TV or video games more than once a day (or even only on Wednesdays and weekends)
- balanced and varied diet, no snacks or sugary drinks, while the taste is essential,
- sporting activity outside school.


