Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Mar-Apr;18(2):129-32.
doi: 10.4103/1319-3767.93818.

Regional variation in prevalence of overweight and obesity in Saudi children and adolescents

Mohammad I El Mouzan  1 , Abdullah S Al Herbish, Abdullah A Al Salloum, Ahmad A Al Omar, Mansour M Qurachi
Affiliations

Regional variation in prevalence of overweight and obesity in Saudi children and adolescents

Mohammad I El Mouzan et al. Saudi J Gastroenterol. 2012 Mar-Apr.

Abstract

Background/aims: There are limited data on regional variation of overweight and obesity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the aim of this report is to explore the magnitude of these variation in order to focus preventive programs to regional needs.

Setting and design: Community-based multistage random sample of representative cohort from each region.

Patients and methods: the study sample was cross-sectional, representative of healthy children and adolescents from 2 to 17 years of age. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated according to the formula (weight/height²). The 2000 center for disease control reference was used for the calculation of prevalence of overweight and obesity defined as the proportion of children and adolescents whose BMI for age was above 85 th and 95 th percentiles respectively, for Northern, Southwestern and Central regions of the Kingdom. Chi-square test was used to assess the difference in prevalence between regions and a P value of <0.05 was considered significant.

Results: The sample size was 3525, 3413 and 4174 from 2-17 years of age in the Central, Southwestern and Northern regions respectively. The overall prevalence of overweight was 21%, 13.4% and 20.1%, that of obesity was 9.3%, 6% and 9.1% in the Central, Southwestern and Northern regions respectively indicating a significantly-lower prevalence in the Southwestern compared to other regions (P<0.0001).

Conclusions: This report revealed significant regional variations important to consider in planning preventive and therapeutic programs tailored to the needs of each region.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

References

    1. Sinha R, Fisch G, Teague B, Tamborlane WV, Banyas B, Allen K, et al. Prevalence of impaired glucose tolerance among children and adolescents with marked obesity. N Engl J Med. 2002;346:802–10. - PubMed
    1. Marcovecchio M, Mohn A, Chiarelli F. Type 2 diabetes mellitus in children and adolescents. J Endocrinol Invest. 2005;28:853–63. - PubMed
    1. Cali AM, Zern TL, Taksali SE, de Oliveira AM, Dufour S, Otvos JD, et al. Intrahepatic fat accumulation and alterations in lipoprotein composition in obese adolescents: A perfect proatherogenic state. Diabetes Care. 2007;30:3093–8. - PubMed
    1. Berenson GS. Obesity- a critical issue in preventive cardiology: The Bogalusa Heart study. Prev Cardiol. 2005;8:234–41. quiz 242-3. - PubMed
    1. Schwimmer JB, Burwinkle TM, Varni JW. Health-related quality of life in severely obese children and adolescents. JAMA. 2003;289:1813–9. - PubMed