Obesity in kingdom saudi arabia - Essay Example

?Obesity in Kingdom Saudi Arabia: Obesity is a nutritional disorder that results into excessive fat accumulation in the body. The most obvious victims of obesity are the developed countries, though the number of victims of obesity in the developing countries is also readily increasing (Young, 2001). Obesity has a fairly complex etiology. Several factors that include but are not limited to environment and genetics affect obesity along with several physical, psychological and socio-economic reasons. The speed with which obesity has increased all over the world in the past few decades essentially tells that role of other factors in causing obesity is much more significant that that of genetics. In fact, the most fundamental causes of obesity are the socioeconomic and environmental factors. This paper aims at investigating the extent of existence and spread of obesity in Saudi Arabia and also makes an in-sight to its potential consequences. Some people understand obesity as an issue of appearance or shape, which is certainly wrong! Obesity is indeed much more than an appearance issue. It is a disease. In the past ten to fifteen years, more and more people have suffered from obesity all over the world in general and in Saudi Arabia in particular since Saudi Arabia happens to be one of the most industrialized countries in the world. The society in Saudi Arabia generally maintains an upper class life style in which people perceive food as a source of pleasure and do not do exercise. Saudi society is the typical example of a society in which people have all the luxuries of life and their dependence on exercise is minimal. “The population of Saudi Arabia is going through a nutrition transition where customary and traditional food is being replaced by fast food high in fat, sugar and salt” (Al-Othaimeen, Al-Nozha, and Osman, 2007). Along with this, the lifestyle of Saudis is changing in such a way that makes them increasingly exposed to the risk of obesity. The physical activity is extremely reduced and food is considered much more than a necessity of life. According to the National Nutrition Survey, Saudis have made the consumption of food high in calories like fried chicken, French fries and carbonated drinks a common practice. “In a community-based national survey on 10 657 Saudi Arabians aged ? 20 years, multiple logistic regression analysis showed that age, residential area, region, income, sex, and education were statistically significant predictors of obesity” (Al-Othaimeen, Al-Nozha, and Osman, 2007). As a result of that survey, it was found that more women in Saudi Arabia were subjected to obesity than men. An important discovery was the fact that more people had acquired in the urban areas than the rural areas. This can fundamentally be attributed to the difference of lifestyles between the two. People living in the rural areas spend the traditional lifestyle that includes a lot of manual work as compared to the lifestyle of urbanized environments, where life is totally mechanical and physical work is close to non-existent. An obvious discovery was that more people acquired obesity as they grew older. A lot of research has conventionally been done to investigate the extent of obesity in the Saudi Arabians and many publications have noted that percentage of overweight women in Saudi Arabia is 66, percentage of obese adult population in Saudi Arabia is 52, the percentage of obese adolescents in Saudi Arabia is 18 and as many as 15 per cent of pre-schoolers in Saudi Arabia suffer from obesity (admc.hct.ac.ae, n.d.). “The figures revealed so far in a number of studies done on a slice of the Saudi population portray a grim picture tool” (admc.hct.ac.ae, n.d.). These statistics essentially tell how aggravated the issue of obesity in Saudi Arabia is particularly as it gives rise to various other kinds of diseases that include but are not limited to hypertension, diabetes, cancer, cardio-vascular disease, high blood pressure and heart attack. One of the most significant causes of the increase in coronary artery disease (CAD) cases in Saudi Arabia is the wide spread obesity and overweight. Given the bad eating habits of the Saudi Arabians, these factors are expected to increase in them in general and in Saudi women in particular. Al-Nozha et al. (2005) carried out a study to examine the prevalence of both of these factors in both genders of Saudis who were aged from 30 years to 70 years in both the urban and rural communities of Saudi Arabia. This research formed part of the Coronary Artery Disease in Saudis Study (CADISS), which was a primary project for estimation of CAD among the Saudis. The selected individuals were examined for a period of five years from 1995 till 2000. The body mass index (BMI) became the source of data which was analyzed in order to differentiate between people who were overweight and had the BMI in the range of 25 to 29.9 kg/m2, obese and had BMI greater than or equal to 30 kg/m2, and who were severely obese with the BMI equal to or exceeding 40 kg/m2. A total of 17232 Saudi subjects were examined by the researchers from the households involved in the research. The researchers found that 36.9 per cent of the people were overweight. More males were overweight as compared to females with the percentage of overweight men being 42.4 per cent and that of the overweight women being 31.8 per cent. Prevalence of obesity was found to be 35.5 per cent when it was adjusted for age whereas that of the obesity was determined to be 3.2 per cent. More females in Saudi Arabia were found to be obese as compared to men, with the former being 44 per cent obese and the latter being 26.4 per cent obese. Al-Nozha et al. (2005) concluded that Saudi Arabians are increasingly suffering from overweight and obesity. In order for the public health in Saudi Arabia to increase, it is imperative that both of these factors are reduced in the Saudi Arabians. In light of these conclusions, the researchers suggested that a program for national obesity prevention should be implemented. Obesity has conventionally caused a lot of health problems in Saudi Arabia. Obesity has aloes been found to be linked with, if not a causal factor of infertility in Saudi women. Investigating the obesity in the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, Hamilton, Jaroudi, and Sieck (1995) found that as many as 80 per cent of the non-fertile women in the hospital were suffering from obesity or overweight. El-Hazmi and Warsy (1999) carried out research to investigate the link among overweight, obesity, and plasma lipids among the Saudi Arabians. They found that, [t]he cholesterol and triglyceride levels were significantly higher in the overweight and obese groups compared to the normal weight groups, and since the prevalence of overweight and obesity was high, they concluded that it was essential to initiate control and prevention programmes in an attempt to reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity and hence morbidity and mortality associated with hyperlipidaemic states. (Al-Othaimeen, Al-Nozha, and Osman, 2007). Obesity is a health disorder that is primarily caused by bad eating habits. In a vast majority of cases, people are themselves responsible for having caught in this health disorder and many more that are the outcomes of this. Obesity can be decreased by improving the eating habits and taking regular exercise. In order to fight obesity, Saudis need to bring a major change in their diet. They need to consume more fresh vegetables and fruits rather than meat or fried foods. Moreover, people should make exercise a necessary part of their daily routine. Consumption of fat free food and regular physical workout are the fundamental ways of fighting obesity. References: admc.hct.ac.ae. (n.d.). Obesity threatens the Saudi community. Retrieved from http://www.admc.hct.ac.ae/hd1/english/probsoln/obesitysaudi.pdf. Al-Nozha, M. M., Al-Mazrou, Y. Y., Al-Maatouq M. A., Arafah M. R., Khalil M. Z., Khan N. B., Al-Marzouki K., Abdullah M. A., Al-Khadra A. H., Al-Harthi S. S., Al-Shahid M. S., Al-Mobeireek A., and Nouh M. S. (2005). Obesity in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Med J. 26(5): 824-9. Al-Othaimeen, A. I., Al-Nozha, M., and Osman, A. K. (2007). Obesity: an emerging problem in Saudi Arabia. Analysis of data from the National Nutrition Survey. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal. 13(2). El-Hazmi, M. A., Warsy, A. S. (1999). Relationship between obesity, overweight and plasma lipids in Saudis. Saudi medical journal. 20(7): 521–5. Hamilton, C. J. C. M., Jaroudi, K. A., Sieck, U. V. (1995). High prevalence of obesity in a Saudi infertility population. Annals of Saudi medicine. 15(4):344–6. Young, V. R. (2001). Good nutrition for all: challenge for the nutritional sciences in the new millennium. Nutrition today. 36(1): 6–16. Read More