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Balkan Med J 2012; 29: 424-30 • DOI: 10.5152/balkanmedj.2012.051 © Trakya University Faculty of Medicine

Original Article

Prevalence of Obesity in Elementary Schools in Mardin, South-Eastern of Turkey: A Preliminary Study Betül Battaloğlu İnanç1, Deniz Say Şahin1, Ayşe Ferdane Oğuzöncül2, Recep Bindak3, Feride Mungan1 Health Higher School, Mardin Artuklu University, Mardin, Turkey Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Fırat University, Elazığ, Turkey 3 Department of Statistics, Mardin Artuklu University, Mardin, Turkey 1 2

ABSTRACT Objective: This research determines the frequency of obesity among primary school-aged children and evaluates the relationship between obesity and family and environmental factors. Material and Methods: Three thousand four hundred sixty students, aged 6-15 years in three primary schools in Mardin city center were taken into the study. Information about eating habits and family-environmental factors were obtained by questionnaire. For each student we calculated the body mass index (BMI) and the ≥97 percentile was defined as obese, and between 85-97th percentile as overweight. These values were calculated with the SPSS statistical program. Chi-square and t-tests were used for analysis. p