Research Methodologies: Associated with Obesity

According to an obesity study program, the rate of obesity in the UAE is twice the global rate. As revealed by the World Health Organization, beyond 2.1 billion individuals (nearly 30 perce
nt of world’s population) is obese. It is found that obesity among young population is 5-14 percent in males and 3-18 percent in females. In adult females there is a significant increase of obesity from 2–55 percent and in adult males 1–30 percent. Around 6 percent more females are obese than males in UAE. (6. ALNohair, 2014). Figures from the International Diabetes Federation presented that there were about 803,900 diabetics in the UAE, around 19 percent of the population. 19% is a huge number of people and maximum of them are young population. This value gives an estimation that about 1.8 million people may suffer from diabetes in the UAE within a few years. (9. Haroun et al., 2016).

Obesity is rising the disease burden in young people and the financial burden of obesity in the UAE is $6 billion every year. A cross-sectional population demonstration study showed that frequency of juvenile obesity is high in the UAE. Among 1440 students of age 6 to 19 were subjected to this study. The result showed 14.7 percent of them were overweight and 18.9 percent students were obese (4. Al Junaibi et al., 2013). Obesity considerably amplified with age. Blood pressure level was also increased with BMI percentile (3. Al Junaibi et al., 2013 and 1. Abdulle et al., 2014). A study determined the prevalence of diabetes was 20 percent and the rate was greater in UAE residents (25 percent) than in expatriates (13-19 percent) based on the country of origin (7. Behbehani and Beales, 2013).

Education also plays a role in obesity and evidences shows that illiteracy increases the rate of obesity. For example, people with lower education are twice as likely to be overweight than the literate (5. Ali et al., 2013). The immense change in lifestyle pattern, consuming foods with high sugar, sodium, fat, cholesterol and fewer fibres, availably of cars and insufficient physical activity or inactivity made life of these youths more sedentary. Additionally, spending a lot of time in watching television and using computers contributed to the epidemic of childhood obesity. One child in three is obese or overweight in UAE. A child is 30% more likely to become obese if one parent is obese. This rate increased to 80% if both parents are obese (10. Musaiger et al., 2013). Avoiding breakfast is a part of dieting method adopted by United Arab Emirates girls of age 18-24 and girls who miss breakfast are likely to consume larger quantities of foods at lunch, in this manner gaining weight (9. Haroun et al., 2016).

The remarkable socioeconomic changes necessitate the systematic observation of obesity in young inhabitants. A research showed the epidemiology of obesity in a big cohort of school children and showed the frequency of extreme obesity, obesity and overweight for gender and age (n= 27,113 residents from 2014 to 2015) using IOFT, WHO and CDE methods. Significant outcomes of this observation were the escalating rate of overweight among children of 3 to 18 years, high body mass accumulation starts in toddlers and progress linearly with are and extreme obesity is common mainly among boys (2. Al Blooshi et al., 2016).

Few years ago obesity was largely a problem of rich families but globalization made low income people to shift from their traditional diets towards habits of western diets; thus obesity became a disease of the poor as well. Though studies showed an inferior rate of obesity in poor individuals (3 percent) compared to those who are wealthy (10 percent) (5. Ali et al., 2013 and 8. Gardner et al., 2015). These tendencies suggest quick intervention (growing parental resistor on nutritional picks and physical activity for young people), upgraded health policies and practices in school (proposing healthier diet and workout) and heightened community consciousness about obesity and its harmful consequences (3. Al junaibi et al., 2013). These requirements are very relevant to the United Arab Emirates because health illiteracy is very common here.

References

Abdulle, A., Al-Junaibi, A., & Nagelkerke, N. (2014). High blood pressure and its association with body weight among children and adolescents in the United Arab Emirates.PloS one, 9(1), e85129.

Al Blooshi, A., Shaban, S., AlTunaiji, M., Fares, N., AlShehhi, L., AlShehhi, H., ... & Souid, A. K. (2016). Increasing obesity rates in school children in United Arab Emirates.Obesity Science & Practice, 2(2), 196-202.

Al junaibi, A., Abdulle, A., & Nagelkerke, N. (2013). Parental weight perceptions: a cause for concern in the prevention and management of childhood obesity in the United Arab Emirates.PloS one, 8(3), e59923.

Al Junaibi, A., Abdulle, A., Sabri, S., Hag-Ali, M., & Nagelkerke, N. (2013). The prevalence and potential determinants of obesity among school children and adolescents in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.International Journal of Obesity, 37(1), 68-74.

Ali, H. I., Ng, S. W., Zaghloul, S., Harrison, G. G., Qazaq, H. S., El Sadig, M., & Yeatts, K. (2013). High proportion of 6 to 18-year-old children and adolescents in the United Arab Emirates are not meeting dietary recommendations.Nutrition Research, 33(6), 447-456.

AL Nohair, S. (2014). Obesity in gulf countries.International journal of health sciences, 8(1), 79.

Behbehani, K., & Beales, P. F. (2013). New Perspectives on Health Issues, Research and Innovation. InThe Real Issues of the Middle East and the Arab Spring (pp. 259-273). Springer New York.

Gardner, H., Green, K., & Gardner, A. (2015). Infant feeding practices of emirati women in the rapidly developing city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.International journal of environmental research and public health,12 (9), 10923-10940.

Haroun, D., ElSaleh, O., & Wood, L. (2016). Dietary and activity habits in adolescents living in the United Arab Emirates: A Cross-sectional Study.Arab Journal of Nutrition and Exercise.

Musaiger, A. O., Al-Mannai, M., Tayyem, R., Al-Lalla, O., Ali, E. Y., Kalam, F., ... & Chirane, M. (2013). Risk of disordered eating attitudes among adolescents in seven Arab countries by gender and obesity: A cross-cultural study.Appetite, 60, 162-167.