Causes Of Obesity In Saudi Arabia

One of the serious medical conditions is childhood obesity, which can affects children and adolescents. Childhood obesity is mainly concerning since the additional pounds often lead the children to health complications that were previously confined to adults, such as, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol levels. Obesity is considered as a syndrome with multifactorial causes that include, genetic metabolic, environmental and social cultural interaction instead of a single disease. Obesity in Saudi Arabia is a rising health problem with health officials declaring that it is one of the primary causes of avoidable deaths in Saudi Arabia. On a 2007 list of the fattest nations, Saudi Arabia is ranked 29 on the list by a BMI above

A study showed that overweight has extended to 23% among school-age children. This raise in the number of children with obesity may be due to several risk factors including, different food choices and behaviors due to the social inequalities as well as poor health education. It appears that the leading underlying causes of obesity in children are due to lack of physical activity and poor understanding of food choices. Several findings presented that Saudi children diet were high in fat and carbohydrate intake. Moreover, Studies found that 50.9% and 41.9% of the children neglect eating vegetables and fruits (low in energy density) daily. Therefore, when adding the fruits and vegetables to a diet it will reduce its total energy intake. Additionally, many Saudi children eat fruits as a dessert, causing them to lose their satiety effect. Other unhealthy dietary habits between Saudi children are missing breakfast and eating fast food and snacks more than twice a week. A study conducted among Saudi school-aged children showed that 67.5% respectively of the students were eating snacks and junk food and daily. Also, dietary habits can vary between gender, with the boys eating more fast food and beverages full of carbohydrates and girls preferring eating with the family and snacks with sweets, chocolate and caffeinated beverages. All these dietary habits of Saudi children that

Treatment:

The treatments for childhood obesity is similar to many diseases, define the causes and regulate or eradicate them. One of the best approaches in lessening childhood obesity is to improve exercise habits and the diet of the whole family.

Physical activity:

Increasing the physical activity throughout treatment appears to be a long-term predictor of sustained 'non-obesity'. There are two types of activity that appear to have an important role in continuous weight loss those are: 'lifestyle' exercise and 'programmed' exercise. Both of these forms of exercise aid in promoting initial weight loss, the child is more prone to continue long-term with the lifestyle type of activity. This form of activity includes activities that can be integrated readily into the child's lifestyle, for example, cycling, walking, dancing, swimming, and playing outside. Moreover, the parents should Limit their child’s computer/TV/social-network communication and other activities that encourage sedentary performances. The family of an obese child should encourage their child to incorporate several opportunities for incidental activity into their routine lifestyle.

Healthy