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अमूर्त

Nutritional Status of Public Elementary School Boys in Al-Baha City, Saudi Arabia

Eltigani OM Omer, Mohammed A. Al Shehri and Uthman M. AlBakri

This cross-sectional study aims to evaluate the nutritional status of Al-Baha elementary male schoolchildren. Multi-stage probabilities proportional to size sampling technique were used to select the study units. 725(16.4%) schoolchildren ranging in ages from 5 to15 years randomly selected from 15 schools. The elementary schoolchildren were interviewed using a guided questionnaire (Structured interview) to gather information. Detecto’s ProMed 6129 Waist-High Digital Health Care Scale USA-manufactured was used to measure the height to the nearest 0.1 cm and weight to the nearest 0.1 kg. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS for windows version 18.0 to calculate frequencies, percentage and to test the significance of different variables. Children’s BMI Group Calculator - Metric Version (XLS-3.6 Mb) also was used to compute Body Mass Index - for-age (BMI %ile). The results of this study shows that schoolchildren in Al-Baha were suffering from both ends of the spectrum of nutritional problems (obesity and under-nutrition). 10% (72) of Al-Baha elementary school boys were found to be underweight, 11% (80) of the school boys were overweight and 15% (109) were obese. Also it was found that; the overweight and obese schoolchildren were found to spend more hours on activities which reduce the physical requirements of daily life and have encouraged sedentary lifestyle compared to schoolchildren who were underweight. The association between BMI %ile of Al-Baha schoolchildren and times periods which was spent on
these activities (TV watching hours, computer or other devices hours, and sleeping hours per day) were statistically not significant except with studying and reading hours. Although the BMI %ile and decrease in physical activity were not statistically significant as it appear to be influenced by the frequency of eating behaviors and school health education in many disciplines of Al-Baha schoolchildren. Urgent intervention by activating comprehensive school health programmers is recommended to change sedentary activities and eating behaviors among schoolchildren to control nutritional status and its consequence on health problems.