Association of dietary habits with levels of physical activity and screen time among adolescents living in Saudi Arabia

摘要

Background Understanding the inter-relationships between lifestyle factors in youth is important with respect to the development of effective promotional programmes for healthy eating and active living. The present study aimed to explore the associations of dietary habits (DH) with physical activity (PA) and screen time (ST) among Saudi adolescents aged between 15 and 19?years of age relative to gender. Methods Data were obtained from the Arab Teens Lifestyle Study, a school-based multicentre lifestyle study conducted in 2009/2010 in three major cities in Saudi Arabia. A multistage stratified cluster random sampling technique was used. The number of participants with complete data for DH and PA was 2886 and the respective number for DH and ST was 2822. Assessment included weight, height, body mass index, total daily ST (television viewing, video/computer games and Internet use), PA and DH using self-reported questionnaires. Results Females were significantly more sedentary and less active than males (P?