Prevalence and socioeconomic risk factors of obesity among urban female students in Al‐Khobar city, Eastern Saudi Arabia, 2003

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and the socioeconomic risk factors associated with obesity among female school-aged children and adolescents in primary and intermediate schools in Al-Khobar city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This is a cross-sectional study conducted in Al-Khobar city, which is located in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia, during the period of January to March 2003. It involved 2239 female schoolchildren randomly selected from 30 regular government and private primary and preparatory schools. The students' ages ranged from 6 to 17 years, with a mean of 10.49 +/- 2.64 years. A multistage stratified random sampling technique with proportional allocation was used. Data were collected using questionnaires and anthropometric measurements. Body mass index interpretation was based on using a table of standard definitions for overweight and obesity in children (Cole's). The spss version 10 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used for data entry and analysis. A chi-squared test was used in cross-tabulation analysis to test the significance of association between body mass index and socioeconomic variables. The prevalence of overweight and obesity were 20% and 11%, respectively. The prevalence of overweight was higher among schoolchildren with father in private work (P<0.01) and the prevalence of overweight and obesity was higher among schoolchildren with highly educated mothers (P=0.008). The prevalence of overweight and obesity among female school-aged children and adolescents in the Al-Khobar city was very high. Accordingly, it is recommended that health education programmes regarding obesity should be provided to all schoolchildren, their families and teachers.

Prevalence and risk factors of obesity among school-aged children in Xi’an, China

“…In our work, high maternal education was a protective factor for obesity, this was consistent with some previous studies which suggested that low maternal education was a risk factor for childhood obesity [5,8], however, this result conflicted with the results from other studies, in which overweight and obesity was more prevalent among children with highly educated mother [1,18]. Controversial results may arise from differences in the design of the study, such as characteristics of participants, methodology, and sample size.…”

Prevalence of Obesity and Factors Leading to Obesity among High School Students of Pakistan

“…For associated factors 31% prevalence of mothers of the non obese school children with low education, 23.76% prevalence of non obese children in upper socioeconomic status and 17% prevalence of non obese children of working mothers (expected frequency of disease among non diseased) was considered. 19 The final sample size was given by the variable mothers' education because it gave the largest sample of all the independent variables. To see the association of mothers education with the obesity in children we took a confidence level of 95%, power of 80%, the ratio of exposed children (whose mothers are illiterate) to unexposed children (children whose mothers have at least five years of education) and the prevalence of obesity among children of educated mothers of 31% the sample size came to be 336 with 114 in unexposed arm and 228 among exposed arm.…”

“…Computer use, television watching 9 for long periods of time and especially at the prime time when most food advertisements are shown. 16,17 Obesity in children is also become a public health problem in countries like India has significant rise in the proportion of overweight and obese children has taken place, especially in the urban centers; 18 Saudi Arabia has prevalence of overweight and obese school children boys 20% and girls 11% 19 and other countries in the gulf also have similar trends, for instance, about 16.5% and 16.9% of boys and girls, respectively are obese and overweight in United Arab Emirates. 20 The study helped to formulate the recommendations for preventing the growing epidemic of obesity and factors related to it in a typical local setting.…”

Retracted: Executive dysfunction in elderly diabetic patients

“…This agrees with previous studies. 44,46 The current study detected a significant association between glycemic control and the patient 's functional status. This result agreed with Rita et al, who found a similar association between uncontrolled diabetes and functional disabilities.…”