Prevalence of Childhood Obesity Among Children and Adolescents in Saudi Arabia: A Systematic Review
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Childhood obesity is a growing public health concern worldwide, with significant implications for long-term health outcomes. Thus, the aim of this study is to highlight the prevalence and trend of obesity among children and adolescents in Saudi Arabia over the last 24 years. This systematic review included participants aged 2 to 19 years without systemic disease, reporting the prevalence of obesity using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classification and BMI calculation, from studies in English or Arabic published between January 2000 and April 2024. We conducted a comprehensive search across multiple databases including ProQuest, Google Scholar, ISI Web of Science, Embase via Ovid, and MEDLINE via Ovid, and reviewed references of included studies. Data were extracted and quality assessed independently by two authors, with any disagreements resolved through discussion with a third reviewer, using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale modified for this study. This systematic review included 21 studies from Saudi Arabia, published between 2006 and 2023, with participants aged 2 to 19 years. The studies involved a total of 63,512 subjects. Among children, the prevalence of overweight ranged from 5% to 29%, while obesity ranged from 3.8% to 49.7%, classified using CDC criteria. Quality assessment rated 10 studies as Very Good, 10 as Good, and one as Unsatisfactory. The systematic review of childhood obesity prevalence in Saudi Arabia over the past 24 years highlights alarming trends and significant public health implications. Our analysis emphasizes an increase in obesity rates among children and adolescents, revealing a complex link of socioeconomic, cultural, and lifestyle factors contributing to this epidemic.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.008 | 0.027 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.005 | 0.005 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.009 | 0.009 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".