Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T22:09:56.543Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dietary and socio-economic factors associated with obesity among Kuwaiti college men

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

Abdulwahab Naser Al-Isa
Abdulwahab Naser Al-Isa*
Affiliation:
Department of Community Medicine and Behavioural Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kuwait, PO Box 24923, Safat, Code 13110, Kuwait
*
*Corresponding author: Dr Abdulwahab Naser Al-Isa, fax +965 5318454, email [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Obesity has been on the increase among people of the Arabian Gulf countries. Overweight and obesity among 18–29-year-old Kuwaiti men increased by 23·4 and 14·8 % respectively, between 1980 and 1993. The objective of the present study was to explore factors associated with overweight and obesity in a sample of 515 Kuwaiti college men studied in 1997. Weight and height were measured. The index of adiposity used was the BMI, which is the weight (kg) divided by the height (m) squared (kg/m2). The men were classified as overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m2) or obese (BMI > 30 kg/m2). The associated factors obtained through questionnaires included age, marital status, governorate, number of siblings, suffering from a chronic disease, subjects' parental obesity, education and occupation, number of major meals eaten, eating between meals, family income, number of servants, number of people living at home, exercising, last dental and physical check-up, dieting, year of study, highest desired degree after college, countries preferred for visiting, and socio-economic status. The results of the study revealed that 38·5 and 11·1% of the students were overweight and obese respectively. Factors that were found to be significantly associated with overweight and obesity among the men included age, marital status, last dental check-up, exercising, subjects' parental obesity, dieting and year of study. Logistic regression analysis of significant associated factors revealed that the same factors contributed to the development of overweight and obesity.

Keywords

ObesityBody mass indexKuwait
Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Nutrition , Volume 82 , Issue 5 , November 1999 , pp. 369 - 374
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 1999

References

Al-Isa, AN (1989) Obesity among Kuwaiti women: an explorative study. PhD Thesis, Manchester Medical School.Google Scholar
Al-Isa, AN (1995) Prevalence of obesity among Kuwaitis: a cross-sectional study. International Journal of Obesity 19, 431–433.Google ScholarPubMed
Al-Isa, AN (1997) Temporal changes in BMI and obesity among Kuwaiti men Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism 41, 307–314.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Al-Mannai, A, Dickerson, JWT, Morgan, JB & Khalfan, H (1996) Obesity in Bahraini adults.Journal of the Royal Society of Health 116, 30–32 and 37–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Al-Shoshan, AA (1990) Some sociodemographic factors influencing the nutritional awareness of the Saudi teens and adults: preliminary observations Journal of the Royal Society of Health 110, 213–216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Amine, EK & Samy, M (1996) Obesity among female university students in the United Arab Emirates Journal of the Royal Society of Health 116, 91–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anonymous (1997) Youth risk behaviour surveillance: National College Health Risk Behaviour Survey — United States, 1995. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report-CDC Surveillance Summaries 46, 1–56.Google Scholar
Bellisle, F, Monneuse, MO, Steptoe, A & Wardle, J (1995) Weight concerns and eating patterns: a survey of university students in Europe. International Journal of Obesity 19, 723–730.Google ScholarPubMed
Haberman, S & Luffey, D (1998) Weighing in college students' diet and exercise behaviours. Journal of the American College of Health 46, 189–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kamel, BS & Martinez, OB (1984) Food habits and nutrient intake of Kuwaiti males and females. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 15, 261–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Makrides, L, Veinot, P, Richard, J, Mckee, E & Gallivan, T (1998) A cardiovascular health needs assessment of university students living in residence Canadian. Journal of Public Health 89, 171–175.Google Scholar
Mancini, M, Contaldo, F, Farinaro, E, Di Biase, G & Strazzullo, P (1986) Medical complications and prevalence of obesity in Italy. Bibliotheca Nutritio Dietetica 37, 1–10.Google Scholar
Matter, AM, ALekri, SA, Mahdi, AR & Musaiger, AO (1990) Growth patterns of adolescents in Bahrain. Journal of the Royal Society of Health 110, 179–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of Public Health (1996) Health and Vital Statistics. Kuwait City, Kuwait: Ministry of Public Health of Kuwait.Google Scholar
Musaiger, AO (1990) Nutritional disorders associated with affluence in Bahrain. Family Practice 7, 9–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Musaiger, AO & Al-Ansari, M (1991–1992) Factors associated with obesity among women in Bahrain. International Quarterly of Community Health Education 12, 129–136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Musaiger, AO, Matter, AMALekri, SA & Mahdi, AR (1993) Obesity among secondary school students in Bahrain. Nutrition and Health 9, 25–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Musaiger, AO & Radwan, HM (1995) Social and dietary factors associated with obesity in university female students in United Arab Emirates. Journal of the Royal Society of Health 115, 96–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Patterson, RE, Kristal, AR, Lynch, JC & White, E (1995) Diet–cancer related beliefs, knowledge, norms and their relationship to healthful diets. Journal of Nutrition Education 27, 86–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rippe, JM, Crossley, S & Ringer, R (1998) Obesity as a chronic disease: modern medical and lifestyle management. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 98, S9–S15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sciacca, JP, Melby, CI, Hyner, GC, Brown, AC & Femea, PI (1991) Body mass index and perceived weight status in young adults. Journal of Community Health 16, 159–168.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, BL, Handley, P & Eldredge, DA (1998) Sex differences in exercise motivation and body-image satisfaction among college students. Perceptual and Motor Skills 86, 723–732.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stunkard, AJ, Sorensen, TI, Hanis, C, Teasdale, TW, Chakraborty, R, Schull, WJ & Schulsinger, F (1986) An adoption study of human obesity. New England Journal of Medicine 314, 193–198.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
World Health Organization (1990) Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases: Report of WHO Study Group. WHO Technical Report Series no. 797. Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Young, TK & Sevenhuysen, G (1989) Obesity in Northern Canadian Indians: patterns, determinants, and consequences. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 49, 786–793.CrossRefGoogle Scholar