Corrigendum: Prevalence of overweight and obesity among saudi children: a comparison of two widely used international standards and the national growth references.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2022.954755.].

Prevalence of overweight and obesity among saudi children: A comparison of two widely used international standards and the national growth references.

Objective: To compare three body mass index (BMI) classifications that are used to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity among Saudi children aged 6-13 years: the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) age and gender cutoffs, the World Health Organization (WHO) growth references for school-aged children, and the Saudi (KSA) national growth references. Methods: The sample comprised 2,169 children (52.5% girls) derived from two cross-sectional studies conducted in Riyadh and Jeddah during the 2017 and 2019 school years, respectively. Body weight and height were measured, and BMI was calculated. Results: The proportions (%) of the participants who were classified as underweight, overweight, and obese varied according to the reference used: IOTF reference (13.8, 18.4, and 12.7), WHO reference (17.2, 19.1, and 18.9), and KSA reference (7.0, 22.4, and 9.3), respectively, indicating higher values for overweight and obesity prevalence when the WHO references were used. Kappa agreement measures between the three references were found to be high, with the coefficients ranging from 0.936 (between the IOTF and KSA references) to 0.849 (between the IOTF and WHO references). In all three classifications, girls exhibited lower overweight or obesity prevalence than boys. Family income, but not paternal or maternal education, was significantly (p = 0.015) associated with overweight/obesity when using the IOTF standards. In addition, having a small family in the house was significantly (p < 0.05) associated with obesity, irrespective of the classification system. Conclusion: Inconsistency was observed when estimating the prevalence of underweight, overweight, and obesity among Saudi children. However, when defining the overall prevalence of overweight plus obesity among Saudi children, the IOTF classification system performed in a similar way to the KSA references (31.1% versus 31.7%) compared to the WHO references (38.0%).

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic quarantine on dietary behaviors and lifestyle of Saudi adults in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate how the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic quarantine affected Saudi adults' dietary behaviors and lifestyles in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study using an electronic questionnaire was adopted. A total of 476 Saudis residing in Jeddah were involved with the investigation. The study was carried out from March to May 2021. The questionnaire addressed dietary behaviors (types of foods consumed) and lifestyle behaviors (food shopping, physical activity, and sleep quality). RESULTS: The study participants aged 18-65 years, 70.2% were females, mainly non-infected with coronavirus previously (88.7%). Fast food consumption as (pizza and burgers) decreased significantly during the quarantine period. However, consumption of snacks, sugars, and pastries increased significantly during the quarantine period. This could be attributed to the boredom and distress experience during this period. The results showed that participants reported a significant decreases in daily physical activity and shopping during the quarantine period. There was also a significant change in their sleep quality. Moreover, there were significant differences between males and females concerning eating snacks, healthy foods, sweetened beverages, pastries, physical activity, daily activities (housework and shopping), and smoking behavior. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 quarantine period significantly affected Saudi adults' healthy eating behaviors and lifestyle.

Dietary exposure to acrylamide from cafeteria foods in Jeddah schools and associated risk assessment.

BACKGROUND: Acrylamide (AA) is a carcinogenic and genotoxic food contaminant produced at high temperatures in foods that are rich in carbohydrates. Foods sold in schools in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, are among such carbohydrate-rich foods produced at high cooking temperatures. It is crucial to determine the importance of AA exposure with respect to cafeteria foods and assess the associated risks. RESULTS: The highest mean AA level was measured in chocolate pies (439 µg kg-1 ), followed by custard pies (435 µg kg-1 ) and cheese pies (432 µg kg-1 ). The average and 95th percentile values of AA exposure were 0.51 and 1.17 [µg kg-1 body weight (BW) school day-1 ]. The average exposure significantly decreased with an increase in age, from 0.65 (µg kg-1 BW school day-1 ) in primary school students to 0.37 in secondary school students. Cheese and chocolate pies are the main contributors in AA intake. The contributions of cheese and chocolate pies to the average exposure among primary, middle and secondary school students were 23.1%, 24.7% and 29.4% and 16.9%, 12.1% and 11.9%, respectively. Other products with significant contributions included cheese sandwiches (10.8%, 8.9% and 12.7%), plain cookies (7.7%, 5.6% and 6.7%) and custard pies (7.7%, 4.8% and 8.9%). Other cafeteria products contributed to AA exposure at much lower percentages. CONCLUSION: The calculated margins of exposure (MOEs) for the average [356 and 614 for both benchmark dose lower confidence limit (BMDL) 0.18 and 0.31 mg kg-1 BW day-1 ] and 95th percentile AA exposure values (154 and 265 for both BMDL 0.18 and 0.31 mg kg-1 BW day-1 ) suggest that there is a health concern with respect to school-aged students. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.