Background: Underweight is a term describing a human whose body weight is considered too low to be healthy. Underweight is associated with negative health consequences, such as nutritional deficiency, osteoporosis, and unfavorable pregnancy outcomes in women of childbearing age. Several studies were carried out in Saudi Arabia to study the prevalence of overweight or obesity among women, and ignored underweight. Objective: This study was designed to find out the prevalence of underweight and slimness among young Saudi female students and describes its relation with dietary habits, blood pressure and socio-demographic differentials. Methodology: This study was carried out on 220 female students aged 18 to 24 years were chosen from, Taibah University., Al Madinah Al Munawwarah, KSA, then classified according to BMI into fifth categories; Very severely underweight (<15 kg/m2); severely underweight (15 to 16 kg/m2); underweight (16 to 18.5 kg/m2); normal weight (18.5 to 25kg/m2); and overweight (>25kg/m2). All normal, obese, and overweight girls were excluded from the study that carried out on underweight girls (150 females). Data socioeconomic status, health history, dietary habits, anthropometric measurements, and blood pressure measurement were collected. Results: the result showed that 3.2% of studied girls were suffering from very severely underweight, 5.9% were severely underweight, while the most of girls were underweight 59.1%, 19.5% had normal weight and 12.3% were overweight. Most of girls 97.3% of them were age between 18 – 24 years, also 42% of girls were in the second academic year and 85.3% of girls were single. While most of girls 79.3% were no suffering from diseases, while about 20.7% of girls were suffering from diseases including; anemia, tuberculosis, diabetes mellitus and osteoporosis. On the other hand 70% of subjects were desired systolic BP (90 – 119 mmHg) and also 72% of subjects were desired diastolic BP (60 – 79 mmHg). As for bad dietary habits were like eating one meal per day, not r eating breakfast, use traditional method (Mesabek) in cooking and low rates of milk consumption, meat and fruits and vegetables daily. In conclusion: High percentage of females suffering from underweight, most of them were from low socioeconomic class, and they have some bad food habits that may worsen their status and could be at risk for deficiencies of essential nutrients, also blood pressure measurements of girls were at normal ranges. This study recommended promotion of health eating, habits and physical activity.
Key word: Underweight, slimness, blood pressure, dietary habits, body mass index, university, Saudi female students.
Corresponding author:drafaf@hotmail.com