A Study on the Frequency of Food Consumption and Its Relationship to BMI in School Children and Adolescents in Abha City, KSA.

Vedavalli Sachithananthan and Nanees Gad

Department of Public health, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Khalid University, Abha, KSA.

Corresponding Author Email: dr_vedavalli@yahoo.com

This study aimed at finding a relationship between frequency of food consumption and Body mass index (BMI).

In this study, 200 school going adolescent girls, 12 – 19 years were selected randomly from two schools which were randomly sampled out of 30 schools in Abha province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Their height, weight and waist circumference were measured. Physical activity, family history of obesity or underweight (thinness Grade 1) and dietary profiles including frequency of food consumption were collected by an interview process.

Pearson’s Chi square was computed between BMI and frequency of food consumption.  Statistical analysis revealed that frequency of food consumption and physical activity did not relate to BMI. However family history of obesity or underweight (p<0.05) significantly related with BMI. Also none of the study subjects had central obesity based on waist circumference. However 4.5 % of the subjects were obese based on BMI.

Dietary counseling to overweight and underweight subjects regarding the importance of physical activity in maintaining normal BMI is the need of the hour and is recommended for the school going children and adolescents. In addition to this, consuming a balanced diet would help preventing chronic diseases in the long run.

Dietary profile; Frequency of food consumption; Physical activity; Thinness; Underweight; Overweight; Obesity

[ HTML Full Text]