Effect of the Family Food Environment and Dietary Behaviors on Obese Children and Adolescents

Introduction: The prevalence of overweight and obesity among the children are increasing in the last two decades in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. However, there are limited studies regarding dietary behaviour on children and adolescents with obesity. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study data collected over six months August 2014-February 2015. Sample size was 293 children and adolescents (4-16 years old age) randomly selected from the ambulatory clinic in King Abdulaziz University Hospital. Data analysed by using statistical package for social science (SPSS), version 16. Results: There was a significant relation between eating outside the home and Body Mass Index and ratio of center circumference to hip, (p = 0.018). The data shows that children who eat while they watch television have higher Body Mass Index score than who were not (p = 0.036) r = 0.143. Moreover, there were also association of children dietary behaviour and Body Mass Index scores of children. Children who drink soft drinks (p = 0,023, r = 0,141) and not doing exercises (p = 0,01, r = 0,347 and p = 0.008, r = -0.167 have high Body Mass Index respectively). On the other hand, we found that kids who eat with their families have lower weight while height was controlled (p = 0.012, r = -0.335). Conclusion and recommendations: Findings, along with the results of the present study, suggest that the availability of obesity-promoting foods in an adolescent's home and eating behaviour promotes the consumption of these foods/fluids and increase the risk of obesity for both sexes. Therefore we recommended that to regulate the availability of unhealthy food/fluids may reduce adolescent BMI change as well we advise to decrease fast food and soft drinks consumption.