Lists
Lists
Alobaid, Ahmed Abdullah (1995) Food availability and fat composition of diet in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, with reference to coronary heart disease. Doctoral thesis, University of North London.
This presentation discusses the first study of its kind conducted in the Eastern Province in Saudi Arabia. The study population was selected from three areas, representing different socio-demographic conditions i.e. urban, rural and Bedouin areas. The aims were to provide information on food availability and the coronary heart disease mortality and its implications among the population, taking into consideration fat and fatty acid profile in the diet.
The data were collected in three approaches; (1) food availability survey based on household food purchasing for five consecutive days, (2) coronary heart disease proportion mortality survey based on the recorded deaths from six Ministry of Health (public) Hospitals from 1989 to 1990 and (3) the experimental work, involved the determination of fatty acid profile of foods identified in the first study.
Our results demonstrate that there are marked differences in food availability as well as dietary habits amongst the three groups studied. The fat and fatty acid profile of the analysed foods demonstrated that many Saudi foods contained a high amount of saturated fatty acids. The coronary heart disease proportional mortality of the study region was comparable to that in the UK. They also show a significant difference between Bedouin and non-Bedouin coronary heart disease proportional mortality, which may be due to dietary as well as non-dietary risk factors.
There were a number of inherent biases associated with the methods used in this study which made our data interpretation difficult. We hope that the present work will stimulate other researchers in this field.
 |
View Item |