(1996). In this study, weight, height, and dietary patterns were obtained from 540 adolescent girls aged 12 to 18 years. These researchers used the body mass index of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANESI) as their reference for adolescence (Madani et al., 1996). The respective prevalence rates among this sample was found to be 14.7% underweight (<15th percentiles), 69.0% normal weight (15th-85th percentiles) and 16.3% overweight or obese (>85th percentiles). Based on these findings, Madani and his associates posited that the dietary practices of Saudi adolescents were comparable to their peers in other developed countries in the West and may reflect a tendency on the part of Saudi youth to adopt more Western-like lifestyles.

Al-Abbad (1995) assessed the prevalence of obesity and a number of the condition's associated risk factors following the same criteria used in the Madani et al. (1996) study. In Al-Abbad's analysis, 700 randomly selected...
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