Perceived Barriers to Healthy Eating and Physical Activity among Adolescents in Seven Arab Countries: A Cross-Cultural Study
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- Abdulrahman O. Musaiger
- Arab Centre for Nutrition, P.O. Box 26923, Manama, Bahrain
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- Mariam Al-Mannai
- Department of Mathematics, College of Science, Sakhir, Bahrain
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- Reema Tayyem
- Department of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Allied Health Science, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan
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- Osama Al-Lalla
- Department of Nutrition and Health, Ministry of Education, Dubai, UAE
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- Essa Y. A. Ali
- Elia Nutrition and Health Centre, Kuwait, Kuwait
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- Faiza Kalam
- Dietetic Clinic, Damascus, Syria
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- Mofida M. Benhamed
- Department of Food Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tripoli, Tripoli, Libya
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- Sabri Saghir
- Faculty of Agriculture, Hebron University, Hebron, Palestine
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- Ismail Halahleh
- Nutrition Department, Makassed Hospital, Jerusalem, Palestine
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- Zahra Djoudi
- NutriDar, Algiers, Algeria
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- Manel Chirane
- NutriDar, Algiers, Algeria
Abstract
<jats:p><jats:italic>Objective.</jats:italic>To highlight the perceived personal, social, and environmental barriers to healthy eating and physical activity among Arab adolescents.<jats:italic>Method.</jats:italic>A multistage stratified sampling method was used to select 4698 students aged 15–18 years (2240 males and 2458 females) from public schools. Seven Arab counties were included in the study, namely, Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Palestine, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. Self-reported questionnaire was used to list the barriers to healthy eating and physical activity facing these adolescents.<jats:italic>Results.</jats:italic>It was found that lack of information on healthy eating, lack of motivation to eat a healthy diet, and not having time to prepare or eat healthy food were the main barriers to healthy eating among both genders. For physical activity, the main barriers selected were lack of motivation to do physical activity, less support from teachers, and lack of time to do physical activity. In general, females faced more barriers to physical activity than males in all countries included. There were significant differences between males and females within each country and among countries for most barriers.<jats:italic>Conclusion.</jats:italic>Intervention programmes to combat obesity and other chronic noncommunicable diseases in the Arab world should include solutions to overcome the barriers to weight maintenance, particularly the sociocultural barriers to practising physical activity.</jats:p>
Journal
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- The Scientific World Journal
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The Scientific World Journal 2013 1-11, 2013
Hindawi Limited
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Keywords
Details 詳細情報について
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- CRID
- 1360855568725787776
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- ISSN
- 1537744X
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- Data Source
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- Crossref