“Fast-food restaurants and obesity in Saudi Arabian women of childbearing age: A scoping review 2012 to 2023”
Creators: name: Joavita Joyce Pires
Publisher: name: OSF Registries
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Women's Health
subject: Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition
subject: Public Health
subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
subject: Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
subject: Health Policy
subject: Community Health and Preventive Medicine
subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
subject: Dietary habits
subject: Lifestyle behaviors
subject: Lifestyle patterns
subject: Non communicable diseases
subject: Obesity
subject: Overweight
subject: Women of childbearing age
subject: Women's Health

description: Since 1975 obesity has almost tripled globally and now it has become epidemic. According to World Health Organization (WHO) reports, among women the prevalence of overweight is 69.2% and obesity is 39.5% in the KSA. (WHO, 2016) The incidence of overweight and obesity was noted to be the highest in the Middle East in 2013 and it was observed at 65% in the Saudi Women of Childbearing Age (WCA). Furthermore, in a study conducted on Saudi WCA in 2018, it was noted that the rate of Obesity class I was 22.4%, Obesity class II was 11.1% and Obesity class III was 6.6% and seen to increasing. (Adwani et al., 2021) Multiple factors like a sedentary lifestyle, poor eating habits, and other psycho-social factors contribute to rising levels of obesity. (Alsulami et al., 2023).(Altamimi et al., 2020) WCA who are 15 to 44 years old are especially vulnerable to gaining weight and associated with adverse health issues like Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and overall mortality. (Hutchesson et al., 2020) In this scoping review, the relationship between Fast Food (FF) and obesity in WCA will be reviewed. 
FF is defined as food that is prepared in a short amount of time and served quickly, or done self-service to the customers. The ingredients are usually precooked and packed in a takeaway like burgers, french fries, and pizza (Al-Otaibi et al., 2015) (AlFaris et al., 2015) Customers are more prone to consume FF due to its low cost, convenience, multiple food choices, flavor, and taste. FF is known to be harmful due to its adverse effect on body weight, and health as it has a larger portion of food, high sodium, low fiber, and high energy density from unhealthy fats with the estimation of 65% higher energy when compared to home-made foods. (Al-Otaibi et al., 2015) In recent years there has been a change in trend due to Westernization in KSA which has opened a variety of international and local FF hubs as effective centers of FF restaurants encouraging people to consume more FF. With WCA already being prone to gaining weight and other health issues increasing FF hubs is likely to add more obstacles to controlling weight gain.
Gap: According to WHO 2016 reports, the prevalence of “overweight and obesity in KSA is 68.2% (women 69.2% and men 67.5%) and 33.7% (women 39.5% and men 29.5%), respectively”. The prevalence of obesity observed in all areas of KSA was 24.7% as reported by a large survey conducted in 2020. (Alsulami et al., 2023) Unfortunately, there is not enough evidence of Obesity in Saudi WCA and their relationship with FF. This scoping review can add awareness and bring a better understanding of obesity among WCA in Saudi Arabia. It can provide insight into the medical health relationships of KSA to plan better health promotional activities. The public health authorities of KSA can benefit from this study as it gives a better understanding of the problem of upgrading policies and controlling the environmental health policies of the country.
References:
Adwani, N., Fouly, H. and Omer, T. (2021) ‘Assessing the impact of obesity on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes among Saudi women’, Nursing Reports, 11(2), pp. 279–290. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/NURSREP11020027/S1.
AlFaris, N.A. et al. (2015) ‘Trends of fast food consumption among adolescent and young adult Saudi girls living in Riyadh’, Food &amp; Nutrition Research, 59. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3402/FNR.V59.26488.
Al-Otaibi, H.H. and Basuny, A.M. (2015) ‘Fast Food Consumption Associated with Obesity/Overweight Risk among University Female Student in Saudi Arabia’, Pakistan Journal of Nutrition, 14(8), pp. 511–516. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3923/pjn.2015.511.516.
Alsulami, S. et al. (2023a) ‘Obesity prevalence, physical activity, and dietary practices among adults in Saudi Arabia’, Frontiers in Public Health, 11. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1124051.
Altamimi, A.A. et al. (2020) ‘Lifestyle behaviors and socio-demographic factors associated with overweight or obesity among saudi females attending fitness centers’, Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity, 13, pp. 2613–2622. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2147/DMSO.S255628.
Hutchesson, M.J. et al. (2020) ‘Supporting women of childbearing age in the prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity: a scoping review of randomized control trials of behavioral interventions’, BMC Women’s Health, 20(1), p. 14. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-020-0882-3.
WHO (2016) Diabetes Saudi Arabia 2016 country profile, WHO. Available at: https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/diabetes-sau-country-profile-saudi-arabia-2016 (Accessed: 11 December 2023).