Preliminary Exploration of Obesity-Related Eating Behaviour Patterns in a Sample of Saudi Preschoolers Aged 2-6 Years through the Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire.

Ali H Al-Hamad,Aljohara M Al-Naseeb,Pawel K Olszewski,Maha S Al-Assaf,Suzan A Al-Obaid,Bandar S Al-Abdulkarim

doi:10.3390/nu13114156

Ali H Al-Hamad, Aljohara M Al-Naseeb + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13114156

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Abstract

Background: The Children’s Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) is used with parents to determine the characteristics of eating behaviour of their children and, consequently, children’s propensity to become obese. It has been successfully used mainly in Western countries, but not in Saudi Arabia. In this pilot study, we explored the use of the Saudi version of the CEBQ for preschool children aged 2–6 years in Saudi Arabia, and assessed the associations between eating behaviours and children’s age, gender and relative weight and parental weight. Methods: Parents of 200 Saudi preschool children in Riyadh completed the Saudi version of the CEBQ. Factor analyses on all CEBQ items were performed and differences between genders and age groups were examined. Correlations between children’s BMI z-scores and eating behaviours were analysed using linear regression. Results: The factor analysis revealed an eight-factor solution similar to the theoretical factor structure, with good internal reliability and acceptable correlations between subscales. Boys scored higher than girls on food responsiveness; no difference between age groups was found. Positive associations between BMI z-scores and ‘food approach’ subscales, food responsiveness, enjoyment of food and emotional overeating were found, while ‘food avoidant’ subscales, satiety responsiveness and slowness in eating had inverse relationships with BMI z-scores. Maternal BMI had a positive association with BMI z-scores and food responsiveness. Conclusion: The CEBQ is a valid psychometric tool that can be reliably used to assess eating behaviour characteristics in Saudi preschool children.

Highlights

Background iationsAccording to the World Health Organisation [1], obesity among children is one of the most critical public health issues
Items loaded onto each factor ranged from 2–6 items (Table 2)
This study is the first attempt to date to apply the Children’s Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) instrument in a sample of Saudi preschool children aged 2–6 years. It shows that the Saudi version of the CEBQ has good psychometric attributes with regard to factor structure, internal reliability and correlation between subscales, which is similar to the outcomes of validation studies in other geographic locations [14,22,24,26]

Summary

Introduction

According to the World Health Organisation [1], obesity among children is one of the most critical public health issues. It is reported that over 40 million children under the age of five years are overweight; the majority of these live in low- and middle-income countries. Obese children are at risk of developing high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes [2], and they are more likely to be obese in adulthood [3,4]. As in the majority of developed countries, Saudi Arabia—which has witnessed significant changes in lifestyle as a consequence modernisation over the past three decades [5]—. Has a very high prevalence of obesity among children and adults. Reported that the prevalence of overweight was 19.0% and of obesity 23.3% in Saudi children. There is a lack of a sufficient data on obesogenic behavioural traits in

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