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Prevalence of Obesity among Children and Adolescents in Saudi Arabia: A Multicenter Population-Based Study
BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity has increased in Saudi Arabia over the past few decades. However, a representative burden of obesity remains unclear, as most studies had relied on small samples and/or used international growth references, which may have resulted in over-or underestimations of prevalen...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Wolters Kluwer - Medknow
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9997853/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36909009 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/sjmms.sjmms_417_22 |
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author | AlEnazi, Shooq AlAjlan, Raghad AlKhalaf, Hamad Abolfotouh, Mostafa Alharbi, Omar Alfawaz, Rasha Aldebasi, Bader Alghnam, Suliman |
author_facet | AlEnazi, Shooq AlAjlan, Raghad AlKhalaf, Hamad Abolfotouh, Mostafa Alharbi, Omar Alfawaz, Rasha Aldebasi, Bader Alghnam, Suliman |
author_sort | AlEnazi, Shooq |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity has increased in Saudi Arabia over the past few decades. However, a representative burden of obesity remains unclear, as most studies had relied on small samples and/or used international growth references, which may have resulted in over-or underestimations of prevalence. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to determine the prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents in Saudi Arabia using the Saudi growth chart. METHODS: This population-based retrospective study included children and adolescents aged 2–19 years who visited any facility within the National Guard Health System (5 hospitals and 24 primary care centers) across Saudi Arabia between 2016 and 2021. The Saudi growth reference for children and adolescents was used for classification. Those with body mass index ≥95(th) percentile were considered as obese and ≥85(th) to <95(th) percentile as overweight. Chi-square tests were used to compare frequencies across groups. RESULTS: A total of 351,195 children and adolescents were included, of which 337,316 (96%) were Saudis. Overall, about one-fifth of the population was overweight (11.2%) or obese (9.4%). The prevalence of obesity was highest among children aged 2–6 years (12.3%), and it was higher among boys (10.4%) than girls (8.3%). In terms of region, the prevalence of obesity among Saudis was highest in the Central and Eastern regions (9.9% for both). CONCLUSION: The findings highlight an urgent need for national interventions to focus on the upstream determinants of childhood obesity and to improve healthy options for children and adolescents in terms of food and physical activities. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9997853 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Wolters Kluwer - Medknow |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-99978532023-03-10 Prevalence of Obesity among Children and Adolescents in Saudi Arabia: A Multicenter Population-Based Study AlEnazi, Shooq AlAjlan, Raghad AlKhalaf, Hamad Abolfotouh, Mostafa Alharbi, Omar Alfawaz, Rasha Aldebasi, Bader Alghnam, Suliman Saudi J Med Med Sci Original Article BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity has increased in Saudi Arabia over the past few decades. However, a representative burden of obesity remains unclear, as most studies had relied on small samples and/or used international growth references, which may have resulted in over-or underestimations of prevalence. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to determine the prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents in Saudi Arabia using the Saudi growth chart. METHODS: This population-based retrospective study included children and adolescents aged 2–19 years who visited any facility within the National Guard Health System (5 hospitals and 24 primary care centers) across Saudi Arabia between 2016 and 2021. The Saudi growth reference for children and adolescents was used for classification. Those with body mass index ≥95(th) percentile were considered as obese and ≥85(th) to <95(th) percentile as overweight. Chi-square tests were used to compare frequencies across groups. RESULTS: A total of 351,195 children and adolescents were included, of which 337,316 (96%) were Saudis. Overall, about one-fifth of the population was overweight (11.2%) or obese (9.4%). The prevalence of obesity was highest among children aged 2–6 years (12.3%), and it was higher among boys (10.4%) than girls (8.3%). In terms of region, the prevalence of obesity among Saudis was highest in the Central and Eastern regions (9.9% for both). CONCLUSION: The findings highlight an urgent need for national interventions to focus on the upstream determinants of childhood obesity and to improve healthy options for children and adolescents in terms of food and physical activities. Wolters Kluwer - Medknow 2023 2023-01-04 /pmc/articles/PMC9997853/ /pubmed/36909009 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/sjmms.sjmms_417_22 Text en Copyright: © 2023 Saudi Journal of Medicine & Medical Sciences https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. |
spellingShingle | Original Article AlEnazi, Shooq AlAjlan, Raghad AlKhalaf, Hamad Abolfotouh, Mostafa Alharbi, Omar Alfawaz, Rasha Aldebasi, Bader Alghnam, Suliman Prevalence of Obesity among Children and Adolescents in Saudi Arabia: A Multicenter Population-Based Study |
title | Prevalence of Obesity among Children and Adolescents in Saudi Arabia: A Multicenter Population-Based Study |
title_full | Prevalence of Obesity among Children and Adolescents in Saudi Arabia: A Multicenter Population-Based Study |
title_fullStr | Prevalence of Obesity among Children and Adolescents in Saudi Arabia: A Multicenter Population-Based Study |
title_full_unstemmed | Prevalence of Obesity among Children and Adolescents in Saudi Arabia: A Multicenter Population-Based Study |
title_short | Prevalence of Obesity among Children and Adolescents in Saudi Arabia: A Multicenter Population-Based Study |
title_sort | prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents in saudi arabia: a multicenter population-based study |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9997853/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36909009 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/sjmms.sjmms_417_22 |
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