Multiple coronary risk factors in healthy older Kuwaiti males

Objectives: To describe nutrient intakes and prevalence of overweight and obesity in a nationally representative sample of Kuwaitis and to compare intakes with reference values. Design: Cross-sectional, multistage stratified, cluster sample. Settings: National nutrition survey covering all geographical areas of the country. Subjects: Kuwaitis (n 1704) between 3 and 86 years of age. Results: Obesity was more prevalent among women than men (50 % and 70 % for females aged 19-50 years and $51 years, respectively, v. 29 % and 42 % for their male counterparts). Boys were more obese than girls, with the highest obesity rate among those aged 9-13 years (37 % and 24 % of males and females, respectively). Energy intake was higher than the estimated energy requirements for almost half of Kuwaiti children and one-third of adults. The Estimated Average Requirement was exceeded by 78-100 % of the recommendation for protein and carbohydrates. More than two-thirds of males aged $4 years exceeded the Tolerable Upper Intake Level for Na. Conversely, less than 20 % of Kuwaitis, regardless of age, consumed 100 % or more of the Estimated Average Requirement for vitamin D, vitamin E, Ca, n-3 and n-6 fatty acids. Less than 20 % of children met the recommended level for fibre. Conclusions: Nutrition transition among Kuwaitis was demonstrated by the increased prevalence of obesity and overweight, increased intakes of energy and macronutrients and decreased intakes of fibre and micronutrients. Interventions to increase awareness about healthy foods combined with modifications in subsidy policies are clearly warranted to increase consumption of low-energy, nutrient-dense foods. Keywords Nutrient intake Nutrition transition Obesity Kuwait EpidemiologyThe relationship between food intake and noncommunicable diseases (NCD), where excessive and unbalanced intakes of energy, SFA, trans-fatty acids, salt and sugar are associated with nutrition-related NCD, is well established (1) . The Gulf countries have the highest reported prevalence of NCD in the world (2) . Kuwait is a Gulf country with a total land area of 17 818 km 2 and a population of 3?3 million, of whom about 31 % are Kuwaiti citizens. About 80 % of adult Kuwaiti citizens (2,3) are reported to be either overweight or obese and many of them suffer from one or more nutrition-related NCD such as diabetes (15 %) (3,4) , metabolic syndrome (24 %) (3) , CHD, hypertension (26 %) (5) and/or dyslipidaemia (33 %) (5)(6)(7) . Kuwait has the highest childhood overweight problem among the Gulf countries and obesity is reportedly on the rise (2) . El-Bayoumy et al. (8) reported that 30?7 % and 14?6 % of children between the ages of 10 and 14 years were overweight and obese, respectively; while 43?3 % and 21?3 % of children between 14 and 19 years of age were overweight and obese, respectively (7) .Before the discovery of oil, Kuwait's food supply was limited. Available foods consisted mainly of rice, dates, seafood, camel milk, sheep and goat meat and their by-products (9) . Meat was an i...

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 60%

Evidence for nutrition transition in Kuwait: over-consumption of macronutrients and obesity

Zaghloul¹,

Al-Hooti

Al‐Hamad

et al. 2012

“…The data were collected as part of the Kuwait National Nutrition Surveillance System (KNNS). The KNNS system has been described elsewhere (10,20) ; however, in brief, it includes children and adults from all geographical locations (governorates) of Kuwait. It includes measurements of weight and height, WC and cholesterol values in some subgroups.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On account of lifestyle changes associated with the transition in nutrition in the Arabian Gulf, resulting principally from rising incomes associated with the discovery and production of oil over the past few decades, obesity has increased dramatically (9,10) . El Bayoumy et al (11) found that the overall prevalence of overweight and *Corresponding author: Email bojack@umd.edu r The Authors 2010 obesity among men was 29?3 % and 14?9 %, respectively, (P , 0?001) and the prevalence of overweight and obesity among women was 32?1 % and 14?2 %, respectively (P , 0?001).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of great concern is the finding that chronic diseases are also increasing among children and adolescents (11,15) . Virtually all studies of obesity in adults and children in Kuwait have measured BMI (10,(16)(17)(18) as the yardstick to measure obesity. No large-scale epidemiological studies have examined WC, despite the fact that WC is thought to be more reliably related to MS than is BMI (2,3,7,19) .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Waist circumference percentiles for Kuwaiti children and adolescents

Jackson

Hamad

Prakash

et al. 2010

Objective: Abdominal obesity is a major risk factor for chronic diseases. Yet there are no waist circumference (WC) cut-offs for children in the Arabian Gulf. We developed smoothed WC percentiles for 5-19-year-old Kuwaiti children and adolescents, which could be used in clinical and public health practice. We also examined the percentages of children who had WC $ 90th percentile, a value commonly associated with an elevated risk of CVD. Design: This is a cross-sectional study that was conducted by the Kuwait National Nutrition Surveillance System. Setting: Data were collected from representative primary-, intermediate-and secondary-school children as part of the yearly nutrition and health monitoring. Least mean square regression was used to develop smoothed WC curves. Subjects: A total of 9593 healthy 5?0-18?9-year-old children of both sexes were studied from all areas of Kuwait. Age, gender, residency, education level, weight, height and WC were collected for all participants. Results: We developed the first smoothed WC curves for Kuwaiti children. Male children had higher WC than female children. WC increased with age in both genders, but larger percentages of male children had WC $ 90th percentile. Male children aged .10 years have higher WC percentiles than do female children at the 50th, 75th, 90th and 97th percentiles. Conclusions: Male children (especially those aged .10 years) are at higher risk than female children. Few health-care professionals routinely measure WC. WC measurement should be promoted as an important tool in paediatric primary care practice. The use of these age-and gender-specific percentiles can impact public health recommendations for Kuwaiti and other Arab children from the Gulf.

“…The Nutrition Administration of the Ministry of Health established the KNSS to continuously monitor the nutritional health status of the Kuwaiti population using a serial cross-sectional design. The analysis was restricted to adults aged 20 to 69 years who attended mandatory health examinations for registration for government employment or pensions (12) . All Kuwaiti citizens have virtually guaranteed employment and enjoy a retirement pension.…”

Section: Study Populationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Secular trends and risk factors of overweight and obesity among Kuwaiti adults: National Nutrition Surveillance System data from 1998 to 2009

Ahmed

Waslien

Al-Sumaie

et al. 2012

Objective: To determine trends in prevalence of overweight and obesity in Kuwaiti adults, and to examine their association with selected sociodemographic and lifestyle factors. Design: Analysis of cross-sectional population survey data from the Kuwait National Nutrition Surveillance System. Setting: Social and health facilities in Kuwait. Logistic and linear regression analyses confirmed these temporal changes for both prevalence and BMI in both genders. The odds of obesity increased with age until the fifth decade for both genders and then declined significantly for males. Education level was negatively associated with obesity prevalence in females, while participation in leisure-time exercise was negatively associated with obesity prevalence in males. Conclusions: Although the combined prevalence of overweight and obesity (BMI $ 25 kg/m 2 ) seemed to decrease from 2005 to 2009 among Kuwaiti adults, further research to clarify the identified confounders and continued monitoring are needed to confirm the decrease observed.