Childhood obesity: referred cases to a tertiary health center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

To show the pattern of etiology of childhood obesity referred to our endocrinology clinic between December 1989 and December 1994.

All the children referred to our clinic at the above stipulated dates were studied. This is a retrospective medical records review of these patients. The patients' height and weight were measured by trained staff of the clinic. The Quetelet index also known as Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated as weight (kg)/height (m)2 for each patient. Laboratory data as well as results of clinical investigations were also obtained from the records of the patients.

52 patients with ages ranging between 2 years and 16 years (median 8 years) were studied. Male:female ratio was 1:1.35 (67.3%) of the patients were Saudis while 17 (32.7%) were non-Saudis. The etiology of obesity among the series were nutritional 46 (88.5%), Prader-Willi Syndrome 3 (5.8%), Laurence-Moon-Biedl Syndrome 1 (1.9%), pseudohypoparathyroidism 1 (1.9%) and hypothyroidism 1 (1.9%). The study showed that the majority of the patients had simple nutritional obesity.