Obesity in children tracks into adulthood and is associated with premature cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes and premature death.1 Although the prevalence of childhood obesity is escalating in developing countries including Pakistan,2 the factors fuelling this trend have not been well studied. We conducted a survey on 339 randomly selected children and adolescents aged 11–17 years from four private schools in Karachi, Pakistan to determine the factors associated with overweight and obesity.

Approval to conduct the survey was obtained from the Ethics Review Committee of the Aga Khan University. From each school, a list of all the children in the specified classes was obtained. A random selection of children …