Journal of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

During the past three decades, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children has increased dramatically across the world. In Saudi Arabia the rate of obesity reaches to 60% of young people and children, who are at least 50% of the population of the Kingdom. Many scientific studies that were conducted in the Kingdom have warned of the serious repercussions of this phenomenon on health and economics. Parental perception and knowledge about obesity as a health problem might be the first step to promote healthy lifestyle and a healthy body weight among children. This study is a part of a doctoral project, which aimed to identify parents� thoughts about healthy eating, perception of their children weight, current health promotion, activity levels, and thoughts on what should be done in schools. A survey was given to 1000 parents from different social and economic classes in Jeddah, KSA. Approximately 400 of them were filled. The data were taken from questionnaire which included those concerning to knowledge, opinions, feelings, attitudes and beliefs regarding healthy eating and physical activity. The findings were indicated to that: The majority of parents believed strategies to promote healthy weight should start early in a child�s life. All parents think that the school must pay attention to gain children healthy eating habit. About 91 % of parents agreed to make lifestyle changes to help their children gain healthy weight. Almost all parents find that childhood obesity is a very serious problem. More than half of parents think that their child has normal weight, in contrast, about 12% think that their children are overweight or obese.

Biography

Samihah H Altuwairgi has a scholarship from Saudi government to study PhD inUK at Swansea University. She is currently a third year PhD candidate, under the supervision of Dr. Michelle Lee inPsychology Department. The main area of her research interest lies in the field of childhood obesity: prevention and intervention. She holds aBachelorand Master degree with honorsin childhood studies from King Abdul-Aziz University, KSA. She was one of the founders of “The Future Sun Center”, a child center, where she worked as a designer of behavioral and educational programs for children.

Email: sht1966@gmail.com