The Effect of School-Based Intervention on Obese and Overweight Students in Urmia, Iran

OBJECTIVE: Obesity is an important concern for both adults and students. The study evaluates the effect of school-based intervention (SBI) on sedentary life style (SLS), physical activity (PA) and body mass index (BMI) among the students in Urmia, Iran.

METHODS: The study was undertaken from 31 December 2013 to 21 June 2014. A total of 80 male students were randomly selected from single-sex junior high schools of the two existing districts in Urmia. They were assigned to two groups of intervention and control (each 40). SBI was performed on intervention group during 6 months. The essential parameters for evaluating the effects of SBI on SLS, ADL and BMI of students were used.

RESULTS: There was a significant difference between the two groups for the cycling (P<0.001) and walking (P=0.003) in leisure time and TV watching time (P=0.007) in the intervention group. After the intervention a decrease was found in the BMI, but it wasn’t significant (p>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: According to the obtained results, the SBI had a positive effect on the improvement of ADL but the reverse was true about SLS in obese and overweight students. More comprehensive randomized experiments must perform to explain the effects of long time SBI on the BMI of the obese and overweight students.