Journal of Child and Adolescent Behavior
Open Access

Research Article

Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviors as Risk Factors of Obesity among Rural Adolescents

¹Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia

²Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

*Corresponding Author:

Nasser Alqahtani
Ministry of Health
Adelaide, Riyadh PO Box 42248, Saudi Arabia
Tel: +966530102200
E-mail: nasadiet23@gmail.com

Received Date: January 17, 2015; Accepted Date: January 29, 2015; Published Date: February 05, 2015

Citation: Alqahtani N, Scott J, Ullah S (2015) Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviors as Risk Factors of Obesity among Rural Adolescents. J Child Adolesc Behav 3:185. doi:10.4172/2375-4494.1000185

Copyright: © 2015 Alqahtani N, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract Objective: The aim of this study is to explore relationship between Physical activity and sedentary behavior (screen time) and obesity among adolescents in rural areas. Methodology: Cross-sectional study was conducted in 2011 using a multistage randomization method. It surveyed 370 from rural areas of Riyadh region in Saudi Arabia. Results: This study found a strong association between the moderate to vigorous METs and overweight and obesity among male participants (p<0.001). Prolonged screen time has strong association with overweight in males (p=0.01) and females (p<0.001). Similar association found between screen time and obesity in males and females (p<0.001). Conclusion: low physical activity and prolonged screen time are the main predictors for overweight or obesity or both of them in rural adolescents.

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