title: Prevalence of childhood obesity in the state of Kuwait.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Overweight and obesity have reached an epidemic in Kuwait, with the highest rate of adult obesity in the region. National estimates of childhood obesity in Kuwait are scarce. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among school children in Kuwait.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a cross-sectional study of a representative sample of 6-18 years old school children, randomly selected from 244 schools in Kuwait. Anthropometric data was measured from 6574 students in September 2012-June 2013. Overweight and obesity have been defined in accordance with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) and World Health Organization (WHO) 2007 criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence estimate overweight was based on the three different systems (CDC = 17.7%, IOTF = 23.3%, WHO = 21.6%). The prevalence of obesity was (CDC = 33.9%, IOTF = 28.2%, WHO = 30.5%). Boys had a higher percentage of obesity regardless of the classification system used.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of childhood obesity is alarmingly high in the State of Kuwait and exceeds the prevalence rates reported from neighbouring countries and from North America.
authors.affiliation: Sidra Medical and Research Centre, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Elkum
authors.affiliation: Dasman Diabetes Institute, Kuwait City, Kuwait.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Al-Arouj
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sharifi
authors.affiliation: Dasman Diabetes Institute, Kuwait City, Kuwait.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shaltout
authors.affiliation: Dasman Diabetes Institute, Kuwait City, Kuwait.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bennakhi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000886:Anthropometry; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007730:Kuwait / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology*; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D013334:Students
keywords: Arabs; children; obesity; prevalence