The Effect of the Breast Feeding on the Risk of Overweight among Four Years Old Saudi children

Primary prevention of obesity is more effective if a well designed strategy is focused on the early roots of the causes of overweight and obesity. Increasing duration of breast feeding was shown to be associated with a lower risk of overweight later in life, whereas others failed to confirm that association. Breast-feeding for more than one year was the rule in most villages and rural areas of the Kingdom as reported by several investigators. However, later others researchers indicated that there is a sharp drop in the duration of exclusive breast-feeding in rural and urban areas alike which was attributed partly to availability of infant formula and other baby foods on the market at reasonable price as well as modernization behavior. The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity worldwide has been described by many researchers as epidemic. Several studies showed that a child or adolescent who is overweight or obese has a high risk of being so at 35 years of age. The risk is increased with age while underweight six years old children were 3.6 times are likely to remain at adolescence and overweight ones were 2.8 times are likely to become overweight adolescents. The data for this study were collected from mothers of 200 children below four years of age who visited the primary Health Care Centers (PHCC) in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia. The PHCC were selected randomly from the five regional zones in the city (Two PHCC from each zone). The weight and height of the children were measured and the mothers were interviewed by well trained nutrition students using a pilot, tested and validated questionnaire concerning the duration of breast-feeding of their children. Data from fifteen children were excluded from the analysis as these were incomplete. The results of this study show that children who were breast-fed for more than six months are at a lower risk of being obese (27.2% vs., 42.1%; p <0.001) as compared with those who were breast-fed for less than six months, and there is a negative correlation between BMI and duration of breast-feeding. However, no significant difference between the two groups in relation to overweight was observed (9.2% vs., 10.3%; p