PREVALENCE OF OBESITY AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN CALABAR METROPOLIS, CROSS RIVER STATE – NIGERIA
Keywords:
Adolescents, Obesity, Prevalence, Private and Public Genders, BMI.Abstract
Calabar municipality is a capital city of Cross River State, predominantly filled with working class and business people. This
study was to investigate the prevalence of obesity among adolescents in private and public secondary schools in Calabar
Metropolis of Cross River State, Nigeria. Survey method of research design was adopted for the study. Stratified random
sampling technique was adopted to select 400 students (i.e. 200 from private and 200 from public secondary schools) in
Calabar Metropolis. Structured questionnaire titled Prevalence of Obesity Among Adolescents (POAD) was used to obtain
data. The data obtained were analyzed using Independent t-test statistic. All hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of
significance. The results indicated that significant differences existed between the students of private and public secondary
schools as regards genders and BMI in the study area. It was recommended among other things that Private school students
most especially the adolescents should be involved in proper fitness programmes to help in improving their health status
thereby reducing the risk factors of having obesity related disorders.
