Home|Journals|Articles by Year|Audio Abstracts
 

Original Research



Childhood obesity: Prevalence, risk factors and lifestyle behaviour among primary school male children in Al- Madinah Al-Munawarah, Saudi Arabia

Awad Al-Qahtani, Riyadh Al-Al-Ghamdi, Khalid Al-Ghamdi.




Abstract

Background: Childhood obesity is currently a major health problem in many countries of the world.

Aims & Objective: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of obesity and describe the risk factors among primary school male children in Al-Madinah Al- Munawarah, Saudi Arabia. It is our intension that these data can be useful in planning appropriate intervention programs targeting school children.

Material and Methods: This is a cross sectional descriptive study included 197 primary-school children aged 9 to 14 years living in Al-Madinah Al- Munawarah city. A structured questionnaire was constructed to collect information from the subjects. After an interview and a review of clinical examination records, height and weight were measured.

Results: In this study, 49 (24.9%) of 197 children were obese and 30 (15.2%) were overweight. Food consuming behaviors were strongly associated with childhood obesity in the variables “eating too much” (p = 0.001), “arguing if say enough or stop eating” (p< 0.001), “demanding food while still eating (p = 0.001) and “demanding food between meals” (p = 0.021). Personality behavioral variables were strongly associated with childhood obesity in the variables “complaint being overweight” (p< 0.001), “complaint being unattractive” (p < 0.001), “complaint being not fitting in clothes” (p< 0.001), “complaint being teased” (p = 0.009).

Conclusion: The prevalence of overweight and obesity among primary school children in Al-Madinah Al- Munawarah is high. Multiple strategies and interventions are warranted to prevent overweight and obesity related risk behavior in school-aged children.

Key words: Childhood Obesity: Risk Factors; Lifestyle Behaviour; Saudi Arabia






Full-text options


Share this Article


Online Article Submission
• ejmanager.com




ejPort - eJManager.com
Refer & Earn
JournalList
About BiblioMed
License Information
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
Contact Us

The articles in Bibliomed are open access articles licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.