The predictors of obesity among primary school students: a case study at Sekolah Kebangsaan Chembong / Nor Ilmyliza Tazudin, Nurulizwaneey Zainal and Nur Mahirah Mohd Nor

The rates of obesity among children in Malaysia is increasing rapidly. Obesity develops serious health problems and a variety of negative characteristics. Therefore, this study attempts to describe the factors contributing to obesity and to develop statistical model in predicting the obesity among the children. A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of standard 4, 5 and 6 students who attended and registered in Sekolah Kebangsaan Chembong, Rembau, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The data was gathered directly from the respondent through questionnaire. There are 78.4% of the students who are not obese and 21.6% who are obese. It is found that the male students are more obese with pocket money more than RM 5 have the higher chance among obesity group. Factors which were physical activities and family factor is significantly contributes to obesity among children, while eating behaviour and pocket money are not significant factors among children. The logistic model developed had 72.1% accuracy in predicting the obesity among children. Hopefully this information can give more awareness to the parents, school and government in preventing the obesity.