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Underweight Adolescents in Northern Saudi Arabia - A Community-Based Study

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Last updated: 03 Jan 2025

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Abstract

Background: Adolescence refers to the developmental period between childhood and adulthood, and the WHO defines adolescents as individuals between the ages of 10–19 years. They make up about 20% of the world population. Rapid development and urbanization of KSA has resulted in changes in nutritional and diet patterns that have affected the BMI of children and adolescents and led to nutritional transition. The objective of this study was to evaluate and estimate the weight status and prevalence of underweight in school-aged male and female adolescents in Arar city, Northern Saudi Arabia using the BMI. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that has been conducted among school adolescents of both sexes, aged 12-18 years during the academic year 2015–2016 over a period of 9 months (October 1st, 2015 to June 30th, 2016). Information obtained through an interviewer administered semi-structured questionnaire. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated as per the formula BMI = weight (kg) / height(m2). Age and sex-specific BMI percentiles were computed based on the Centre for Disease Control (CDC)/National Centre for Health Statistics growth curves. Results: In the studied participants (n = 849), the male-female ratio was (48.1%:51.9%). About half (50.4%) of the studied adolescents had normal BMI, 25.7% were underweight (below the 5th percentile), 18.1% were overweight and only 5.8% were obese (above 95th percentile). In conclusion; nutritional status among adolescents is not so well. Yet more work is needed to identify the more influential factors which can improve the nutritional status among adolescents in Arar beside nutritional education programs to the mothers and/or care givers.

Keywords

Nutritional Status, BMI, Adolescents, Underweight, Arar city, Northern Saudi Arabia Introduction

Authors

First Name

Areej Muteb S. Alanazi1, Abdalla Mohamed Bakr Ali2, Zainab Muhammad Ibrahim Ory3, Reem Mudhhi Essa Alanazi1, Nujud Muteb D. Alshammari1, Jawaher Mohammed Hassan Al Ruwaili1,

Last Name

Jawaher Naif M. Althayidi1, Waad Salamah Alaleimi1, Rayyanah Mufadhi R. Alanazi1, Rawan Hamdan Salem Alenazy1, Maha Ibrahim Alanazi1

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Affiliation

1 Faculty of Medicine, Northern Border University, KSA.2 Faculty of Medicine, Sohag University, Egypt 3 Pediatrics Department, Faculty of Medicine, Northern Border University, KSA

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Volume

71

Article Issue

7

Related Issue

1636

Issue Date

2018-04-01

Receive Date

2018-03-09

Publish Date

2018-04-01

Page Start

3,641

Page End

3,647

Print ISSN

1687-2002

Online ISSN

2090-7125

Link

https://ejhm.journals.ekb.eg/article_8476.html

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https://ejhm.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=8476

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27

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Original Article

Type Code

606

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

The Egyptian Journal of Hospital Medicine

Publication Link

https://ejhm.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Underweight Adolescents in Northern Saudi Arabia - A Community-Based Study

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Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023