Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2021

DOI

10.1159/000518533

Publication Title

Medical Principles and Practice

Volume

30

Issue

6

Pages

515-521

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the sex- and age-specific trends of stunting and combined overweight with stunting among schoolchildren over a 13-year period in Kuwait. Subjects and Methods: The Kuwait Nutrition Surveillance System objectively measured the height of 172,573 schoolchildren (5–19 years) over a 13-year period (2007–2019). Data on gender and date of birth were extracted from school records. Stunting was defined as height 2 standard deviations (SD) below the World Health Organization growth reference median. Logistic regression models were used to examine the trends of stunting over the study period while stratifying by gender. Results: In males, the prevalence of stunting increased from 2.46% in 2007 to 4.18% in 2019 (p for trend p = 0.009, but not females, AOR 0.89 (95% CI: 0.73–1.07); p = 0.176. Although not statistically significant, there was a tendency for the odds of combined overweight with stunting to increase in males, AOR 1.65 (95% CI: 0.90–3.04); p = 0.087, but not females, AOR 1.13 (95% CI: 0.88–1.45); p = 0.248. Conclusion: Although the prevalence of stunting and combined stunting with overweight is low, there is an emerging upward trend in schoolboys that warrants further investigation and monitoring. This highlights the need for gender-specific interventions to reduce nutritional abnormalities in high-income countries in the Middle East countries like Kuwait.

Comments

© 2021 The Authors

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC), applicable to the online version of the article only. Usage and distribution for commercial purposes requires written permission.

Original Publication Citation

Al-Taiar, A., Alqaoud, N., Sharaf Alddin, R., Alanezi, F., Subhakaran, M., Dumadag, A., & Albatineh, A. N. (2021). Stunting and combined overweight with stunting among schoolchildren in Kuwait: Trends over a 13-year period. Medical Principles and Practice, 30(6), 515-521. https://doi.org/10.1159/000518533

ORCID

0000-0001-7421-3381 (Al-Taiar)

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