Dietary Practices, Physical Activity and Health Education in Qassim Region of Saudi Arabia

Objectives: Diabetes, hypertension and coronary artery disease are emerging threats to the health status in Saudi Arabia. These diseases are attributed largely to unhealthy dietary habits and lack of physical activity. Health education through primary health care (PHC) centers can play a significant role in changing behaviors and reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases. Methods: We present the results of analysis of a moderately large dataset on dietary practices, physical activity and exposureto health education among patients visiting the PHC centers in Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. We examined this crosssectional data to identify the relationships between these three variables after controlling for the effects of age, sex, marital status, education and disease status. Results: Our results suggest that women, older people, divorced and widowed persons and those with low education are more likely to have poor dietary habits and lack of physical activity. Patients suffering from chronic illnesses are more likely to be exposed to health education from PHC centers, which help to significantly improve their dietary practices and, to some extent, increase physical activity at all ages . Our analysis indicates that health education provided through the PHC centers plays a modest but significant role in improving lifestyles and dietary practices. Conclusion: We conclude that better emphasis on high quality health education would significantly reduce the burden of noncommunicablediseases in our target population. Acknowledgements: This study was made possible by a grant from the Deanship of Research, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. We are indebted to the Ministry of Health, Qassim region, and the staff of the primary health care centers where the study was conducted for their cooperation. The authors take full responsibility of the contents of this article; views expressed arenot necessarily those of Qassim University, the Deanship of Research, or the Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia.