Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Results from the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment revealed that key outcomes for children from Kenya (the only low-income country in the study), were different from others. These findings led to speculation, without confirmatory proof, that Kenya's low-income status may have had an influence. However, there was no other country out of the 12 in the study (including Canada) that was comparable to Kenya. In addition, none of the sites had data from a rural sub-sample which may also have different characteristics. Relying on results from only urban and peri-urban populations of mostly medium-to-high income countries for making global policy decisions or for intervention strategies may be misleading and inappropriate. The project being proposed will help address this problem by collecting data among school-children from Zimbabwe (a low-income country comparable to Kenya), using a similar protocol as done before but adding a rural sub-sample and some additional measures. The project will fill an important and country-specific gap in research data on prevalence estimates of childhood obesity and its relationship with lifestyle and environmental factors. The data will also enable international comparisons of these relationships, and provide evidence of similarities or differences which are important for structuring accurate public health messages and intervention strategies that are informed by relevant research evidence. Furthermore, comparing children across cultures and regions will help researchers and policy makers borrow ideas that are applicable to all country contexts but also develop separate ones where needed. Accurate estimates of the magnitude of childhood obesity and how it relates to other factors is very important in the efforts to reduce or prevent non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular and other chronic diseases, while elevating awareness of the importance of a healthy lifestyle during childhood.