The Application of Geographic Information System for Studying the Prevalence of Over Nutrition School-Aged Children in Thailand

Abstract

The purposes were study the geographical density of province-specific prevalence estimates of
children who are at risk of over nutrition. Using the Survey of Children’s Health from the Department of
Health: Ministry of Public Health Examination Survey and Office of The Basic Education Commission
Examination Survey indicated that the prevalence of over nutrition. We computed prevalence estimates
of over nutrition children among a representative sample of 213,136 children between 6 to 19 years old.
The results showed that overall 14.46% of the children (14.75% of the boys and 14.16% of the girls) in
the sample were in the combined category of over nutrition. Arc GIS was used to display the percentages
of children by maps who were over nutrition. The central provinces, especially those the Ayutthaya
province had the highest prevalence of over nutrition school-aged children about 27.98%. The central
northeast, the Buriram province, had the lowest prevalence about 5.89% from 76 provinces. These
Survey of Children’s Health data provide clinicians and public health professionals with useful data
required for policy and planning related to childhood obesity at provinces levels. These data also serve
as important baseline indicators and can be used to track changes over time.