As a part of continuing health education and improving the health awareness among the students we have been conducting various awareness campaign like Childhood Obesity Prevention Programme (CHOP): The prevalence of obesity has increased to the epidemic proportion and ranges from 2 to 25% worldwide. Obesity is strongly associated with chronic non – communicable diseases such as diabetes mellitus, heart disease, dyslipidemia, hypertension, depression, low self esteem, osteoarthritis, respiratory problem and cancer. Obesity when started in childhood has a serious consequence as there is a long period of exposure, before they reach adulthood and hence prevention of obesity should start in childhood. This study was undertaken to access the prevalence of obesity in school children.

This project was done in 27 schools in Madurai city in association with Alpha Hospital and Research Centre. The schools were randomly chosen and after a proper permission, obesity awareness programme was conducted to teachers, students and parents. Height and weight of children were assessed. The food and exercise pattern in school were analyzed. After analyzing these data obesity prevalence was calculated and the same was informed to the schools.

This study was done in 10 government and 17 private schools. A total of 21624 students were screened and 1153 teachers were educated regarding the problem associated with obesity. There was a total of 3244 obese children. The total prevalence of obesity was 15% with prevalence ranging from 4 to 26% in various schools. School feeding and school curriculum had a major influence in the obesity prevalence.