Introduction:
Children are susceptible to unhealthy lifestyle and have been shown to have various risk factors that may predispose them to development of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The objective of our study was to assess NCDs risk factors among pre-school children in Sousse, Tunisia.

Methods:
We carried out a cross-sectional study in 2016-2017 among pre-school children enrolled in the level 3 to 5 of kindergardens in the region of Sousse. Weight and height were measured for the children. Parents filled in a questionnaire about their characteristics and those of their children. Overweight and obesity were defined according to the age and sex specific body mass index cutoff points of the International Obesity Task Force.Data were analyzed using the Software SPSS 20.0.

Results:
A total of 364 participants were included in the analysis. The mean age of participants was 4.5±0.97 years, the sex ratio was 1.05. Of these, 31.3% were classified as overweight/obese. Only 20.4% of children practice regular physical activity (five days per week or more), whereas the quarter of children (22.7%) did not practice any physical activity per week. Moreover, the mean daily sedentary time was 1,83±1,21 hours, whereas it reached 2.88±1.9 hours daily during the weekend. Thirty nine percent (39,5%) of overweight/obese children and 36% of normal weight children eat their food in front of TV or computer. More than Half (56.2%) of children consume unhealthy snack in the morning. This rate was significantly higher among Overweight/Obese children than normal weight children (p=0.024).

Conclusion:
The findings suggest that the healthy lifestyle behaviors were not yet incorporated in our culture. The NCDs risk factors set in at a very early age. Hence, identifying them early and trying to modify them would help in combating NCDs."