Childhood obesity in Makkah City

Abstract

Objective: The present study used to asses’ obesity in Saudi female children represented by Makkah school children using body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC).

Methods: One thousand and fifty seven children (n =1057), their age were between 6- 15 years old, are participated in this study. Parameters of measuring include height, weight, waist circumference (WC) and blood pressure.

Results: According to BMI percentile the participated children were divided into three groups, 65 children were less than 5th percentile which considered underweight, 502 children were from 5th – 85th percentile which considered normal and 490 children were more than 85th percentile which considered obese. 37.3% of obese children have a high blood pressure. So, hypertension was positively correlated with BMI in obese children.

Conclusion: Obesity is a chronic disorder that has multiple causes. However, obesity changes in response to many features like life style, physical activity, diet and genetic factors. Obese children are more likely to have cardiovascular diseases, digestive diseases and hypertension in adulthood as compared with those who are lean or normal. Childhood obesity has rapidly increased in Saudi Arabia that it became a very series disturbing problem.