Prevalence and Predictors of Obesity and Overweight among Adults Visiting Primary Care Settings in the Southwestern Region, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Introduction. Obesity is becoming the most common health problem of the 21st century, as it will contribute significantly to the high prevalence of cardiovascular disease in developing countries. The main objective of our study was to estimate the prevalence of obesity and overweight among adults attending primary health care settings, southwestern region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Methods. The studied population was composed of adults visiting primary health care centres in the southwestern region of Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study was carried out on a representative sample of 1681 adult patients. Obesity and overweight were defined according to the WHO standards. Statistical analysis was conducted using the statistical package SPSS 17.0. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify independent predictors of obesity and overweight in the studied population. Results. Data on body mass index (BMI) measurement was recorded for 1649 out of 1681 participants (98.1%). The overall mean weight was 74.1 ± 15.81 kg; and that for men was 77.69 ± 16.14 kg vs. 69.37 ± 14.02 kg for women with significant statistical difference of p < 0.001. The overall prevalence of overweight and obesity was, respectively, 38.3% and 27.6%. Smoking was not significantly associated with obesity, whereas hypertension was significantly associated with obesity. The risk of overweight or obesity significantly increased from the highest to the lowest monthly income; it passed from 1.67 CI 95% = [1.24-2.25] within the category 5000-7000 SAR to 2.23 CI 95% = [1.71-2.90] within the category less than 5000 SAR. Conclusion. Our study showed high prevalence of overweight and obesity which should be considered as a public health concern to be followed by specific interventions at the community level with multidisciplinary activities starting from childhood as a primordial prevention program.

Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity, and Associations with Socio-Demographic Factors in Kuwait

“…Men were more overweight than women, while women were more obese than men. This nding is consistent with a recent report in Kuwait [9] and earlier reports in other countries in the GCC such as Qatar [21], Saudi Arabia [22,23], United Arab Emirates [24] and Bahrain [25]. Earlier cultural practices whereby women were discouraged from engaging in voluntary exercise, and valued for plumpness may, in combination with increasing consumption of calorie dense western foods, be a contributing factor to higher prevalence of obesity in women compared to men [26][27][28] The trend to greater levels of overweight and obesity with advancing age has been studied extensively [29][30][31] and is evident also in our results.…”

Decomposition of Gender Differences in Body Mass Index in Saudi Arabia using Unconditional Quantile Regression: Analysis of National-Level Survey Data

“…Our findings that females have a higher BMI than males across various income quintiles are in close contrast to other studies from the KSA [30] and the USA [60] that found higher BMI in men than in women. However, Al-Qahtani [30] explained that multiple pregnancies can be considered as one of the specific risk factors for increased food intake, coupled with cultural beliefs that women should not practice any form of physical activity until 40 days after delivery, thus leading to weight gain and evidently increasing BMI in women as compared to that in men.…”

“…Aspects such as excessive drinking of soda and eating red meat were found to be associated with higher BMI [32][33][34][35]. In another study, Al-Qahtani [30] demonstrated that men have higher BMI than women, and that, across various income quintiles, the risks of being overweight or obese increase with an increase from low-to high-income quintiles. Although the situation is identical, the above-mentioned studies differ from our study in terms of both methods and focus.…”

“…Several studies have investigated the factors associated with BMI in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) [26][27][28][29][30]. These studies emphasize the relationship between BMI and other health outcomes.…”

Corrigendum to “Prevalence and Predictors of Obesity and Overweight among Adults Visiting Primary Care Settings in the Southwestern Region, Saudi Arabia”

“…In the article titled “Prevalence and Predictors of Obesity and Overweight among Adults Visiting Primary Care Settings in the Southwestern Region, Saudi Arabia” [ 1 ], information was omitted from Acknowledgments in error. Acknowledgments is shown below.…”