Effect of Genetic and Environmental Factors on Obesity in Children (Case Study: Qom City)

In this study we answer this main question: what extent genetic and environmental factors affect children obesity? Research methodology in this article is a survey method. For data collection, 384 children between 6-12 years old have been randomly selected from girl’s and boy’s primary schools in Qom city. Descriptive and inferential statistics are used for analysis. Findings show that 19% of children under study are overweight and 13.2% are obese and remaining has normal weight. Overweight and obesity is observed more in boys than girls, also this study shows that there is a significant relationship between genders, physical activity, fast food consumption, sleep debt, parental BMI and rate of the prevalence of childhood obesity, but there is not a significant relationship between age, family income and mother education level. So some effective factors that can be controlled must be considered like food type, physical activity and quality and quantity of children’s sleep and necessary actions must be taken under planning two main factors.