Determinants of Healthy Food Consumption and the Effect of Saudi Food Related Policies on the Adult Saudi Population, a National Descriptive Assessment 2019

Ahmed M. Sabur¹, Lina A Alsharief², Samar A. Amer^{3, 4, 5*}

¹Preventive Medicine Resident, Health Surveillance Center, Ministry of Health(MOH),Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. (KSA).

²General Physician, Makkah first health cluster, MOH, KSA.

³Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Zagazig University, Egypt.

⁴Royal Colleague of General Practitioners, London, United Kingdom.

⁵Department of Mental Health Primary Care, Nova University, Lisboan.

Corresponding Author Email: samar11@yahoo.com

Saudi Arabia (SA) is a country with an advanced nutritional transition, so this study aims to measure the prevalence of healthy food consumption and its context, and to study the effect of Saudi Arabia's policies on the pattern of food consumption among inhabitants in SA. Through an online self-administered and validated questionnaire, the cross-sectional study recruited 590 randomly chosen adult Saudis who were stratified to represent the 20 health regions in KSA. Ethical approval was obtained for this work. The relevant tests were used to code and analyze the collected data. Of the 590 participants, 50.2% were males, with a mean ± SD age of 35.6±10.52 year.43.2% of the participants did not meet the Ministry of Health recommendation in any food group, while only 1.53% consumed the recommended amounts of all food groups. 47.8% of the participants did not perform any physical activity. 34.7% of participants prefer healthy food, 18.8% prefer unhealthy food, and 46.5% prefer both. Most Saudis do not comply with the national dietary guidelines’ recommendations, they are physically inactive, and they use social media in a way that affects their food choices.

Adults; Determinants; Food Policies; Healthy Eating; Saudi Food and Drug Authority

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