ABSTRACT
Childhood obesity has reached epidemic levels in developed countries. Twenty five percent of children in the US are overweight and 11% are obese. About 70% of obese adolescents grow up to become obese adults [1-3]. The prevalence of childhood obesity is in increasing since 1971 in developed countries (Table 1). In some European countries such as the Scandinavian countries the prevalence of childhood obesity is lower as compared with Mediterranean countries, nonetheless, the proportion of obese children is rising in both cases [4]. The highest prevalence rates of childhood obesity have been observed in developed countries, however, its prevalence is increasing in developing countries as well. The prevalence of childhood obesity is high in the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe [5]. For instance, in 1998, The World Health Organization project monitoring of cardiovascular diseases (MONICA) reported Iran as one of the seven countries with the highest prevalence of childhood obesity. The prevalence of BMI (in percentage) between 85th and 95th percentile in girls was significantly higher than that in boys (10.7, SD = 1.1 vs. 7.4, SD = 0.9). The same pattern was seen for the prevalence of BMI > 95th percentile (2.9, SD = 0.1 vs. 1.9, SD = 0.1) [6]. In Saudi Arabia, one in every six children aged 6 to 18 years old is obese [7]. Furthermore, in both
developed and developing countries there are proportionately more girls overweight than boys, particularly among adolescent [6,8,9].
