Iron deficiency anaemia is one of most prevalent nutritional disorders worldwide. It is known to affect the health and cognitive ability of children and adolescents. Studies in Saudi Arabia concentrate only on the population of young children and pregnant females or girls. Studies on the whole school student population is lacking. The objectives of this study were to identify the nutritional habits and the prevalence of anaemia among school students in Jeddah, as well as to recognize the students' awareness of their anaemic nutritional status. Data were collected from a sample of Saudi school children in Jeddah City from 42 boys' and 42 girls' schools during the month of April 2000. Data collection was done by an in-person interview to collect socio-demographic factors, nutritional habits, weight and height. Haemoglobin was measured in a sample of 800 students selected at random from both genders and different age groups. Anaemia was defined according to the new WHO cut-off levels for haemoglobin as: blood haemoglobin <11.5 g/dl for the 5-11 years boys and girls; <12.0 g/dl for 12-14 years boys and girls; <12.0 g/dl for 15+ girls and <13.0 g/dl for 15+ years boys. Proportion and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated and significance was considered when the 95% CI did not overlap. Anaemia was reported among 20.5% of school students. Anaemia was more prevalent among students of at least 12 years as compared to the younger age group. Also, anaemia was more marked among governmental school attendees and those born to low-educated mothers. Menstruating girls were at around double the risk of being anaemic than non-menstruating girls. Anaemia was associated with negative impact on school performance and was more marked among those who failed their exams as compared to students with excellent results. Skipping breakfast was reported by 14.9% of students and this habit did not differ by age, sex, body mass index or social class. Skipping breakfast was more marked among students with poor school performance as compared to those with very good or excellent results. Only 34.1% of anaemic school students were aware of being anaemic. Awareness was nearly equal in all age groups and social classes but girls were more aware of their anaemic status than boys. Iron deficiency anaemia appears to be prevalent among school students. At age 12 years and over, low social class and menstruating girls constitute the high-risk groups. Screening is recommended for high-risk groups and school health programs are crucial to improve students' nutritional habits, knowledge and awareness.

The aim of this study was to contrast the prevalence of allergic symptoms in children living in urban and rural areas of Saudi Arabia and to investigate factors associated with any differences found. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted of a social class-stratified sample of 1,020 urban and 424 rural 12 yr old children, recording symptoms of current and past allergic disease and doctors' diagnoses, together with nationality and the fathers' educational level and occupations. A significantly greater prevalence of allergic symptoms was found in urban than in rural children and in Saudi than in non-Saudi Arab children. Males were more likely to have some respiratory symptoms and females had more eye and skin symptoms. Educational level and occupation of the father did not influence the likelihood of having symptoms. Logistic regression analyses showed that urban residence and Saudi nationality were the two main risk factors associated with asthmatic symptoms. There is likely to have been a recent increase in the prevalence of allergic disease in Saudi children associated with increased affluence, which has not affected non-Saudi migrants moving into the same environment to the same extent. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the environment, possibly through changes in lifestyle and patterns of infection, influences the expression of allergic disease.

BACKGROUND:Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common disorder worldwide; however, epidemiological studies on its prevalence lack in Saudi Arabia. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and risk factors of OSA in Saudi Arabia.METHODS:The study was performed from 2013 to 2015 in two stages. The screening stage was first; a random sample of Saudi employees (n = 2682) 30–60 years of age completed a survey that included the Wisconsin questionnaire. According to these data, the subjects were categorized as habitual, moderate, or nonsnorers (NSs). The confirmatory second stage was a case–control study conducted on 346 individuals selected from each group using polysomnography (PSG).RESULTS:In the first stage, the prevalence of habitual snoring was 23.5%, moderate snoring was16.6%, while 59.9% of the sample was NSs. Among the 346 individuals who underwent PSG, a total of 235 (67.9%) subjects had OSA with an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of ≥5; 76 (22.0%) had OSA syndrome (OSAS), defined by an AHI of ≥5 plus daytime sleepiness; and 227 (65.6%) had clinically diagnosed OSA syndrome (COSAS), as defined by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. A conservative estimate of at least 8.8% (12.8% in men and 5.1% in women) was calculated for the overall prevalence of OSA. Similarly, the overall estimated prevalence of OSAS and COSAS was 2.8% (4.0% in men and 1.8% in women) and 8.5% (12.4% in men and 4.8% in women), respectively. A multivariate analysis revealed age, gender, obesity, and hypertension as independent risk factors of OSA.CONCLUSIONS:Our study demonstrated that the rate and risk factors of OSA in the Saudi population are similar to those observed in Western studies.

Recently, there has been increasing concern about the decline in breast-feeding pattern in developing countries. The objectives of this study were to document the recent breast-feeding trends in Jeddah during the first year of an infant's life and identify the probable maternal risk factors implicated in breast-feeding cessation. Data were collected from six randomly selected primary health care centres in Jeddah City. All married women with an infant

A mass communication campaign was conducted at 20 randomly selected female high schools and 2 school supervision centres in Jeddah to improve knowledge, attitudes and practices of students, teachers and supervisors about dengue fever. A total of 5977 pre-and post-intervention questionnaires were completed and the intervention was conducted using lectures and audiovisual aids. A marked improvement in all areas of knowledge, attitudes and practices was observed after the programme in all groups. Students obtained the highest improvement in mean knowledge scores after the programme compared to the other 2 groups. There is a need to expand such programmes to all Jeddah schools.