Abstract: Obesity is considered a major health problem. Several factors were reported to be associated with obesity in this country such as age, sex, socio-economic status, sedentary behaviors and eating habits.
OBJECTIVES: Our study was aiming to identify the prevalence of obesity among students of health colleges of King Saud University (KSU) in Riyadh, explore the socio – demographic characteristics, factors related to obesity, the lifestyle of the participants and to compare the result of male to female students.
METHODS: This was a community-based quantitative analytical cross sectional study. A sample of 292 under graduated students (146 males and 146 females, participants were chosen randomly from the KSU Health Colleges, Saudi Arabia, during the period from the beginning of Dec 2012 to March 2013. Measurements used were height and weight, calculating the Body Mass Index (BMI) of the participants and interviewing them through face to face questionnaire.
RESULT: The overall prevalence of obesity among students of health science colleges of KSU in Riyadh was 13.7%. The majority of our participants were Saudi Arabian, while the percentage of non-Saudis was 3.8%. The mean age of the participants was 21.25 with standard deviation of 1.16. Half of the participants were males and the rest were females. The prevalence of obesity among males was higher than females (92.5% from the overall prevalence compared to (7.5%) female P value = 0.000. 72.5% of obese participants were having family history of obesity (P value = 0.016). Again 77.5% of obese participants were having chronic diseases (P value = 0.000), especially dyslipidemia which was found in 17.5% of obese participants with (P value = 0.000).
RECOMINDATION: Modification lifestyle is needed, people with chronic diseases should take their medication regularly.
Keywords: Obesity, chronic diseases, community-based quantitative analytical.
Title: High Prevalence of Obesity among Male Compared to Female Students of Health Colleges of King Saud University (KSU) in Riyadh
Author: Elshazaly Saeed, Abdullah S. Aljasser, Abdulrahman Mohammed Alhuzimi, Ahmed Assad Assiri, Alqahtani Nasser Ali, Saud Amer Alshahrani, Yousif A. Al-Ammar
International Journal of Healthcare Sciences
ISSN 2348-5728 (Online)
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