Abstract:

Introduction: Child obesity is an issue which deserves attention because it can cause medical problem in children and adults and it tends to sustain which becomes chronic and causes several health risks in adulthood. In recent years, the increasing prevalence of obesity in children has become an important issue in different parts of world. Therefore diagnosis of child obesity is essential in pediatric.

Preventive medicine and the best way are to acknowledge and limit the risk factors.

Objective: This study aims to determine and compare parents^, BMI in obese and non - obese 6-12 year old children in Esfahan in 2000.

Methods: In this descriptive case-control study, 150 obese ,6-12 year old children were matched as regard to age, sex and place of living with same number of non-obese children and their BMI and their parents^, BMI  were compared.

Results: Findings indicated that there is a significant relation between parents^, BMI and children^,s obesity and their BMI was higher than the BMI of non-obese children^,s parents.In another word, obese children 's parents were more obese  and had more extra weight that the non- obese children ^,s parents.

Conclusion:Since there was a significant relationship between parents^, obesity and their children ^,s obesity and parents^, obesity is an important risk for children ^,s obesity, therefore it is suggested to promptly improve parents^, knowledge on obesity and its risks and stages of prevention of children ^,s obesity.

Key words: obesity, Children, BMI