Risk factors of overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence in South Asian countries: a systematic review of the evidence

Objective To assess and synthesize the published evidence on risk factors of overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence in South Asia. Study design A systematically conducted narrative review. Methods A systematic review was conducted of all primary studies published between January 1990 and June 2013 from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Maldives located through the following data bases: PubMed, PubMed central, EMBASE, MEDLINE, BioMed central, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and electronic libraries of the authors' institutions. Data extraction and quality appraisal of included studies was done independently by two authors and findings were synthesized in a narrative manner as meta-analysis was found to be inappropriate due to heterogeneity of the included studies. Results Eleven…