Association of Body Mass Index, Anxiety and Depression among the School Children of Visakhapatnam District, Andhra Pradesh

Introduction: Obesity is a prevalent metabolic disorder causing co morbid condition worldwide. Anxiety and Depression are globally emerging public health concern psychiatric disorders. The association of these two conditions was studied for the past few years but in south India especially in Andhra Pradesh it is scanty. In view of that we have chosen the association study among the school children of Visakhapatnam. Objective: The present work is aimed to understand Body Mass Index of the school children and its association with anxiety and depression which are most common symptoms of adolescent children. Methods and materials: the study group comprises total 400 school children (220 boys and 180 girls) between the ages of 12-17 years. The demographic and anthropometric data has collected on prescribed proforma along with data of Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) questioner Result: In the present study, the average BMI is normal in both boys (18.82±2.94) and girls (18.87±3.44). Among the study group, abnormal and moderate anxiety together in boys 61.8% and 60.5% in girls, whereas the depression in boys and girls is 49.54% and 39.4% respectively. A prominent observation in the present study is highest anxiety and depression among the 16-17 years’ age group of girls and where is in boy’s highest anxiety score with 12-13 years and highest depression with 14-15 years’ age group. Conclusion: BMI is normal in both girls and boys. Correlation study has conducted between BMI, anxiety and depression for the present study group. The results shown negative correlation among the girls in both anxiety and depression with BMI, whereas in boys it shows a positive correlation.