Overweight, obesity and underweight in rural black South African children

Background: The objective was to estimate the prevalence of overweight, obesity and underweight conditions among rural black children in South Africa. A cross-sectional study was undertaken. The setting was Mankweng and Toronto, both rural settlements in Capricorn district, Limpopo province, South Africa. Participants were 1 172 school children (541 boys and 631 girls) aged 10-16 years.Method: The prevalence of overweight, obesity and underweight was examined, using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) body mass index (BMI) cut-off points. Height and body weight were measured using standard techniques. Results were analysed with student t-test statistics, with probability level set at p-value ≤ 0.05.Results: The percentage of children who were at risk of overweight were higher in girls (11%) than boys (9.1%), whereas obesity occurred more among the boys (5.5%), compared with the girls (4.4%). Applying the CDC cut-off points of 5th < percentile to define underweight, 25 (4.6%) and 35 (5.2%) of boys and girls respectively were underweight.Conclusion: Similar to previous studies, this study indicates that overweight and obesity are high among South African children, even in rural settings. The study also demonstrates that underweight is prevalent among the sampled children. This supports the notion of a double burden of disease in developing countries

Integration of Millennium Development Goals into Physical Education programme: Aqualitative analysis of the perception of Nigerian university lecturers

In 2002 the United Nations (UN) convened an Inter-Agency Task Force on sport for development and peace with the aim of reviewing activitiesconcerning sport in the UN system and designing strategies to promote more systematic and coherent use of sport in facilitating development and peace activi ties, especially at the community level. The UN also empha sised the potential role of sport in achieving the Mil lennium Development Goals (MDGs). Recommendations at several international events, e.g. MINEPS III (Berlin, Germany in 1999) and the International Conference on Sport and Development (Magglingen, Switzerland in 2003), with a follow- up conference in Magglingen, Switze rland, 2005; have consistent ly implicated physical education as the right vehicle through which sport can be effectively uti lized as a tool to promote development and peace, particularly at the community level such as in plus sport act ivities. However, recent trends suggest that a gap exists between the expectations of the UN in terms of sustainable human development and how graduates of physical education and sports studies in universities are prepared to meet these new challenges. This hypothesis was tested in 11 Nigerian universities specifically to analyse the lecturers’ views concerning the need and feasibility to teach contemporary physical education courses within the context of human development. The findings were analysed qualitat ively and conclusions drawn based on its implications for achieving the MDGs in African countries

Commercial advertisement and cigarette smoking: A qualitative analysis of perceptions of students in selected Nigerian University

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Commercial advertisement and cigarette smoking: A qualitative analysis of perceptions of students in selected Nigerian University

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