Childhood obesity has become, a global public health problem, and epidemiological studies are important to identify its determinants in different populations. This study aimed to investigate factors associated with obesity in a representative sample of children in Neishabour, Iran. This study was conducted among 1500 randomly selected 6–12-year-old students from urban areas of Neishabour, northeast of Iran. Then, through a case-control study, 114 obese ( percentile of Iranian reference) children were selected as the case group and were compared with 102 controls ( percentile). Factors suggested to be associated with weight status were investigated, for example, parental obesity, child physical activity levels, socio-economic status (SES), and so forth. The analysis was conducted using univariate and multivariate logistic regression (MLR) in SPSS version 16. In univariate logistic regression model, birth weight, birth order, family extension, TV watching, sleep duration, physical activity, parents’ job, parents’ education, parental obesity history, and SES were significantly associated with children’s obesity. After MLR analysis, physical activity and parental obesity history remained statistically significant in the model. Our findings showed that physical activity and parental obesity history are the most important determinants for childhood obesity in our population. This finding should be considered in implementation of preventive interventions. 1. Introduction Obesity levels are increasing rapidly in children and youngsters of developed and developing countries [1, 2]. In 1998, the World Health Organization project monitoring of cardiovascular diseases (MONICA) showed that Iran is one of the seven countries with the highest prevalence of childhood obesity [3]. Overweight and obesity among Iranian children are becoming a major public health problem [4]. It is predicted that, by 2020, more than 60% of diseases and their related mortality and morbidity in the developing countries will be due to noncommunicable diseases, for many of which obesity is a potential risk factor [5]. Obesity is a multifactorial consequence. In addition to genetic, metabolic, socioeconomic, and cultural factors, life style habits as unhealthy diet, low physical activity levels, weight and order of birth and other factors like history of breast feeding, as well as the age and type of complementary food are among factors affecting obesity [6]. Therefore, this study was designed to identify probable factors that might affect obesity in a group of Iranian children. 2. Materials
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