Secular trends in the prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors among teenage school children in urban south India

Theprevalence of cardiometabolic risk is high among South Asians which manifestsitself at an early age.  Studies havereported that unhealthy food choices, inadequate physical activity and lack ofawareness on healthy lifestyle practices pose a huge threat to the increasingprevalence of metabolic abnormalities even at adolescence.  In an earlier study conducted in 2006, wereported that 68% of the children during their early adolescence had one ormore of the cardiometabolic abnormalities such as obesity, central adiposity,increased blood pressure and presence of dysglycaemia and dyslipidaemia.The risk escalated with increasing weight. Therefore, it is imperative tosensitize the children on improving their lifestyle by conducting screeningtests and health education programmes in schools by involving teachers. We havealso shown in our study that teachers can be instrumental in impartingknowledge on the prevention of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes bypromoting healthy behavioral changes. The proposed study will focus on a) changes in theprevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors over a 10 year period b) healtheducation programme to school children c) recommendations to school teachers(tool-kit) to inculcate improved lifestyle practices to their students.