IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/b/wbk/wbpubs/37723.html
   My bibliography  Save this book

Overweight and Obesity in Saudi Arabia

Author

Listed:
  • Mohammed Alluhidan
  • Reem F. Alsukait
  • Taghred Alghaith
  • Meera Shekar
  • Nahar Alazemi
  • Christopher H. Herbst

Abstract

Overweight and obesity are both a disease and a biological risk factor linked to noncommunicable diseases. More than half of the adult population in Saudi Arabia is overweight, and one out of five is considered obese. These rates echo what is seen in other Gulf Cooperation Countries, representing an alarming regional challenge. Overweight and obesity have a large impact on the economy - through reduced productivity, increased disability, increased health-care costs, and reduced life expectancy. As Saudi Arabia undergoes massive economic transformation through Vision 2030, addressing this issue will contribute significantly to building its human capital, ensuring higher economic growth, and sustaining a workforce that is healthy and prepared for a productive future. While the causes of overweight and obesity are complex and numerous, several innovative and multisectoral evidence-based interventions are emerging globally as promising. Saudi Arabia has already embarked on the design and implementation of several such interventions and is committed to further expanding and scaling up such efforts in order to meet national goals and achieve results.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohammed Alluhidan & Reem F. Alsukait & Taghred Alghaith & Meera Shekar & Nahar Alazemi & Christopher H. Herbst, 2022. "Overweight and Obesity in Saudi Arabia," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 37723.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbpubs:37723
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstreams/2279e923-9f51-5ccb-bdd5-a9092e9c8629/download
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lindsey Smith Taillie & Marcela Reyes & M Arantxa Colchero & Barry Popkin & Camila Corvalán, 2020. "An evaluation of Chile’s Law of Food Labeling and Advertising on sugar-sweetened beverage purchases from 2015 to 2017: A before-and-after study," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(2), pages 1-22, February.
    2. Alsukait, Reem & Wilde, Parke & Bleich, Sara N. & Singh, Gitanjali & Folta, Sara C., 2020. "Evaluating Saudi Arabia’s 50% carbonated drink excise tax: Changes in prices and volume sales," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    3. M Arantxa Colchero & Juan Carlos Salgado & Mishel Unar-Munguía & Mariana Molina & Shuwen Ng & Juan Angel Rivera-Dommarco, 2015. "Changes in Prices After an Excise Tax to Sweetened Sugar Beverages Was Implemented in Mexico: Evidence from Urban Areas," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(12), pages 1-11, December.
    4. Cécile Knai & Mark Petticrew & Nick Douglas & Mary Alison Durand & Elizabeth Eastmure & Ellen Nolte & Nicholas Mays, 2018. "The Public Health Responsibility Deal: Using a Systems-Level Analysis to Understand the Lack of Impact on Alcohol, Food, Physical Activity, and Workplace Health Sub-Systems," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-14, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pierre Dubois & Rachel Griffith & Martin O'Connell, 2020. "How Well Targeted Are Soda Taxes?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(11), pages 3661-3704, November.
    2. John Cawley & Chelsea Crain & David Frisvold & David Jones, 2018. "The Pass-Through of the Largest Tax on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages: The Case of Boulder, Colorado," NBER Working Papers 25050, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. O'Connell, Martin & Smith, Kate, 2020. "Corrective Tax Design and Market Power," CEPR Discussion Papers 14582, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Aranza Valenzuela & Leandro Zambrano & Rocío Velásquez & Catalina Groff & Tania Apablaza & Cecilia Riffo & Sandra Moldenhauer & Pamela Brisso & Marcell Leonario-Rodriguez, 2022. "Discrepancy between Food Classification Systems: Evaluation of Nutri-Score, NOVA Classification and Chilean Front-of-Package Food Warning Labels," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-13, November.
    5. Le Bodo, Yann & Etilé, Fabrice & Julia, Chantal & Friant-Perrot, Marine & Breton, Eric & Lecocq, Sébastien & Boizot-Szantai, Christine & Bergeran, Céline & Jabot, Françoise, 2022. "Public health lessons from the French 2012 soda tax and insights on the modifications enacted in 2018," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(7), pages 585-591.
    6. Stacey, Nicholas & Mudara, Caroline & Ng, Shu Wen & van Walbeek, Corné & Hofman, Karen & Edoka, Ijeoma, 2019. "Sugar-based beverage taxes and beverage prices: Evidence from South Africa's Health Promotion Levy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 1-1.
    7. Charles D. H. Parry & Niamh Fitzgerald, 2020. "Special Issue: Alcohol Policy and Public Health—Contributing to the Global Debate on Accelerating Action on Alcohol," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-7, May.
    8. Alsukait, Reem & Wilde, Parke & Bleich, Sara N. & Singh, Gitanjali & Folta, Sara C., 2020. "Evaluating Saudi Arabia’s 50% carbonated drink excise tax: Changes in prices and volume sales," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    9. Sara Capacci & Olivier Allais & Celine Bonnet & Mario Mazzocchi, 2019. "The impact of the French soda tax on prices and purchases. An ex post evaluation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-22, October.
    10. Gonçalves, Judite & Pereira dos Santos, João, 2020. "Brown sugar, how come you taste so good? The impact of a soda tax on prices and consumption," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    11. Gračner, Tadeja & Kapinos, Kandice A. & Gertler, Paul J., 2022. "Associations of a national tax on non-essential high calorie foods with changes in consumer prices," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    12. Fabrice Etilé & Sebastien Lecocq & Christine Boizot-Szantai, 2018. "The Incidence of Soft-Drink Taxes on Consumer Prices and Welfare: Evidence from the French " Soda Tax"," PSE Working Papers halshs-01808198, HAL.
    13. Suliman Alghnam & Saleh A. Alessy & Mohamed Bosaad & Sarah Alzahrani & Ibrahim I. Al Alwan & Ali Alqarni & Riyadh Alshammari & Mohammed Al Dubayee & Majid Alfadhel, 2021. "The Association between Obesity and Chronic Conditions: Results from a Large Electronic Health Records System in Saudi Arabia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-10, November.
    14. Dickson, Alex & Gehrsitz, Markus & Kemp, Jonathan, 2021. "Does a Spoonful of Sugar Levy Help the Calories Go Down? An Analysis of the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy," IZA Discussion Papers 14528, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Fabrice Etilé & Sébastien Lecocq & Christine Boizot-Szantai, 2021. "Market heterogeneity and the distributional incidence of soft-drink taxes: evidence from France [Regressive sin taxes, with an application to the optimal soda tax]," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 48(4), pages 915-939.
    16. Martin O'Connell & Kate Smith, 2024. "Optimal Sin Taxation and Market Power," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 34-70, October.
    17. Jesse D Malkin & Drishti Baid & Reem F Alsukait & Taghred Alghaith & Mohammed Alluhidan & Hana Alabdulkarim & Abdulaziz Altowaijri & Ziyad S Almalki & Christopher H Herbst & Eric Andrew Finkelstein & , 2022. "The economic burden of overweight and obesity in Saudi Arabia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(3), pages 1-8, March.
    18. Salgado, Juan Carlos & Ng, Shu Wen, 2019. "Understanding heterogeneity in price changes and firm responses to a national unhealthy food tax in Mexico," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    19. Hannah G Lawman & Sara N Bleich & Jiali Yan & Michael T LeVasseur & Nandita Mitra & Christina A Roberto, 2019. "Unemployment claims in Philadelphia one year after implementation of the sweetened beverage tax," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-10, March.
    20. Otilia Vanessa Cordero-Ahiman & Jorge Leonardo Vanegas & Cecilia Alexandra Fernández-Lucero & Daniela Fernanda Torres-Torres & Víctor Dante Ayaviri-Nina & Gabith Miriam Quispe-Fernández, 2022. "Responsible Marketing in the Traffic Light Labeling of Food Products in Ecuador: Perceptions of Cuenca Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-17, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbpubs:37723. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tal Ayalon (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.