Cardiovascular Risk Factors among Adolescent Secondary School Boys in Ahad Rufeida, Southwestern Saudi Arabia

Abstract

A cross-sectional stratified sample of 1249 adolescent secondary school boys was studied. More than 25% of boys did not practice any physical exercise. More than half of the parents (54.5%) were consanguineous. High prevalence of parental history of hypertension, diabetes and high blood lipids was found. Smoking amounted to 11.8%. The prevalence of obesity was 23.3%. The study showed that 6.8% had a high systolic blood pressure and 13.0% (162) had high diastolic blood pressure. There is a need for a national programme to prevent and control cardiovascular risk factors among adolescents.

Prevalence and social determinants of overweight and obesity in adolescents in Saudi Arabia: A systematic review

“…Fifty‐one studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the literature review. All these studies were observational studies, 50 were cross‐sectional 17–66 and one was a case‐control design 67 . Seventeen were published in national journals and 34 in international journals.…”

Prevalences of overweight and obesity and their association with physical activity pattern among Iranian adolescents aged 12–17 years

“…While in a number of studies the prevalence rates of overweight and obesity were higher than or comparable to those in our study (19,26,35,36) , in a few other studies the rates were lower than ours (27,29,31) . However, the prevalence rates with regard to overweight or obesity differed between boys and girls in the various studies across different study populations from other geographic areas of Iran (26,31) , neighbouring countries (32)(33)(34)(35) and the USA as well (20,36) . In a study by Mohammadpour et al among adolescents aged 11-16 years in Tehran, the capital city of Iran, the overall prevalence of overweight was higher than our results (21?1 % v. 15?1 %) but the prevalence of obesity was comparable (7?8 % v. 8?3 %) and the prevalence of overweight among the girls was significantly higher than among the boys (23?1 % v. 18?8 %) (26) .…”

“…In addition, the lower rate of obesity in adolescent girls in our study can be attributed to their lower food intake for keeping or preserving a suitable body image because their tendency to obesity decreases as they grow up, whereas such tendency is usually ignored in adolescent boys (16) . The prevalence of overweight/obesity in children and adolescents has been investigated in several previous studies (19,20,26,(32)(33)(34)(35)(36) . While in a number of studies the prevalence rates of overweight and obesity were higher than or comparable to those in our study (19,26,35,36) , in a few other studies the rates were lower than ours (27,29,31) .…”

Early Identification of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Adolescents and Follow-Up Intervention Strategies

“…It was recommended that this group be followed up in the future and retested in grade twelve and that an additional focus should be on earlier prevention program initiatives with younger children. Shatoor et al (2010) conducted a cross-sectional study in Saudi Arabia on a stratified sample of 1,249 adolescent secondary school boys. More than 25% did not practice regular exercise and there was a high parental history of hypertension, diabetes and high blood pressure.…”