Volume 24, Issue 106, November - December, 2020

Association between nutritional habits and obesity/overweight in Hai’l Region Saudi Arabia

Albandri Abdullah Benammar¹, Abdelbaset Mohamed Elasbali², Hussain Gadelkarim Ahmed^3,4♦

¹Department of Clinical Nutrition, College of Applied Medical Science, University of Ha’il, Saudi Arabia
²Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical sciences, Jouf University, Qurayyat, Saudi Arabia
³College of Medicine, University of Ha’il, Saudi Arabia
⁴Department of Histopathology and Cytology, FMLS, University of Khartoum, Sudan

^♦Corresponding author
Prof. Hussain Gadelkarim Ahmed; College of Medicine, University of Ha’il, Saudi Arabia; Email: hussaingad5@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Background: The growing prevalence of obesity/overweight is raising concerns worldwide. Many factors have been addressed to be associated with the epidemiology of obesity/overweight. Therefore, the present study aimed to measure the association between nutritional habits and obesity/overweight in Hai'l Region Saudi Arabia. Methodology: In this cross-sectional study, 750 Saudi volunteers were recruited during the period from May to October 2020. The study was planned to assess the effects of the nutritional habit on body weight status. Results: The overall prevalence of overweight/obesity was 490/732(67%), including 281/732(38.4%) overweight, 134/732(18.3%) obese, and 75/732(10.2%) morbid obesity. Conclusion: Obesity/overweight is prevalent in Northern Saudi Arabia, which might be attributed to nutritional habits. High frequency of meats, dairy products, and sugarsweetened drinks are factors influencing the prevalence rates of obesity/overweight.

Keywords: Nutritional habits, Obesity, Overweight, Saudi Arabia

Medical Science, 2020, 24(106), 4232-4242

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