الفهرس 
AcknowledgmentOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 277 |  |  |
| | | from | 277 | | |
Abstract
Childhood obesity is defined as mean weight for height xceeds 120 of standards or BMI exceeds 85th percentile for e specific age and sex. It is not confined to the industrialized ountries, as high rates are already evident in some eveloping countries. Hormonal and genetic factors are rarely the cause of nildhood obesity while, the imbalance between energy input land output can lead to significant weight gain over the time. ge, sex, birth weight, birth order, ethnicity, parental obesity, ifeeding patterns, watching TV, socio-economic factors and physical activity are considered as the most important risk factors of childhood obesity. The most important long- term consequence of childhood obesity is persistence into adulthood, with the all associated health risks.c. After the age of three, however, the likelihood that obesity will persist into adulthood increases with the advancing age of the child. Obese children are much more prone to cardiac, orthopedic, gastrointestinal, skin and problems. Finally, the presence of diabetes should be considered in all morbidly obese children. Prevention of overweight and obesity should begin early life, and should involve the development and maintenance f lifelong healthy eating and physical activity patterns. ’revention is no~ just the responsibility of individuals but also :~uires structural changes in societies. The aim of this study is to study obesity: the prevalence, me related risk factors and health status of pre-school hi!dren aged 3-5 years and attending nursery schools in lexandria and evaluation of nutritional intervention program ill morbidity and growth velocity. The total number of children involved in the study was ~80. They were collected from 66 nursery schools (100/0 of Mal number of nursery schools in Alexandria). The Jetermined number of nursery schools selected from each [aistrict was decided by proportional allocation method, then l i I~noosing of the determined nursery schools was performed i i iusing the simple random method. Nursery schools having one or two classes were :included directly, while those having more than two classes only two classes were randomly selected, then all children in he selected classes were involved in the study. ”1’11 The researcher measured weight and height of all lvolved children in the study, and then calculated the weight if height percentage of median of them. Child was msidered as obese if his/her weight for height percentage of .edian exceeded 120.