Prevalence of overweight and obesity in Saudi children and adolescents

There is limited information on overweight and obesity in Saudi children and adolescents. The objective of this study was to establish the national prevalence of overweight and obesity in Saudi children and adolescents. The 2005 Saudi reference data set was used to calculate the body mass index (BMI) for children aged 5 to 18 years. Using the 2007 WHO reference, the prevalence of overweight, obesity and severe obesity were defined as the proportion of children with a BMI standard deviation score more than +1, +2 and +3, respectively. The 2000 CDC reference was also used for comparison. There were 19 317 healthy children and adolescents from 5 to 18 years of age, 50.8% of whom were boys. The overall prevalence of overweight, obesity and severe obesity in all age groups was 23.1%, 9.3% and 2%, respectively. A significantly lower prevalence of overweight (23.8 vs 20.4; P