{
  "abstract": "BackgroundNon-Saudi residents constitute nearly 44% of Saudi Arabia’s population, yet non-Saudi adolescents have been almost entirely absent from national school-health surveillance, including studies using the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS). This study aimed to determine the prevalence of physical activity, sedentary screen time, and sleep duration among non-Saudi adolescents across five Saudi cities, and to examine variation by sex and city of residence.MethodsA cross-sectional survey using a modified, Arabic-translated GSHS questionnaire was administered to students in 40 public intermediate schools across Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Khamis Mushait, and Tabuk. This analysis was restricted to non-Saudi students with complete data (n = 1,036). Physical activity (linear regression) and three binary outcomes, 7-day activity attainment, high sedentary screen time, and very short sleep (logistic regression) were each modeled with sex, city of residence, and age as simultaneous covariates, using cluster-robust standard errors to account for students nested within 36 schools. Adjusted estimates and 95% confidence intervals are reported, with a Bonferroni-corrected threshold (α = 0.006) applied across eight tests (sex and city for each of four outcomes).ResultsOnly 14.0% of participants reported ≥60 min of physical activity on all 7 days, 26.8% reported no active days, 48.9% reported high sedentary screen time, and 37.1% reported very short sleep duration (≤6 h, below the 8–10 h recommended for this age group). After adjustment for city, age, and school clustering, males reported more physical activity days than females (adjusted mean difference = 0.66 days/week, 95% CI 0.23–1.09, p = 0.003) and were less likely to report very short sleep (aOR = 0.59, 95% CI 0.47–0.74, p < 0.001); both associations survived Bonferroni correction. Males were also more likely to report ≥60 min of activity on all 7 days (aOR = 1.55, p = 0.035) and less likely to report high sedentary screen time (aOR = 0.74, p = 0.012), but neither survived correction. City of residence was not significantly associated with physical activity days, high sedentary time, or very short sleep, but showed a nominally significant, non-corrected association with 7-day activity attainment (driven by Dammam vs. Riyadh). Older age was independently associated with fewer physical activity days (adjusted difference = −0.14 days/year, p = 0.036).ConclusionPhysical inactivity, high sedentary screen time, and very short sleep were common among non-Saudi adolescents attending public schools in Saudi Arabia. Sex differences were robust for physical activity days and short sleep, while differences in 7-day activity attainment and sedentary time were smaller and did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. City of residence contributed little to this variation. These findings, among the first population-specific estimates for this substantial and previously understudied group, support further surveillance and consideration of non-Saudi students in school health programming; the effectiveness of sex-specific interventions should be evaluated in future research rather than assumed from these cross-sectional findings.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": "Original Research",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 1,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Mohummed H. Alkhraiji"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2hax5s9xn8d55.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3389/fpubh.2026.1965063",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "2hax5s9xn8d55",
  "issns": [
    "2296-2565"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1965063",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "feed-journal",
      "medicine/epidemiology-public-health"
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  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-11-05",
  "publisher": "Frontiers Media SA",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2hax5s9xn8d55.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-05T12:20:18Z",
      "native_id": "10.3389/fpubh.2026.1965063",
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  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "feed-journal:medicine/epidemiology-public-health",
      "subfield": "epidemiology-public-health"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Prevalence of physical activity, sedentary screen time, and sleep duration among non-Saudi adolescents in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study",
  "title_text": "Prevalence of physical activity, sedentary screen time, and sleep duration among non-Saudi adolescents in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-07T00:21:26Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/2hax5s9xn8d55",
  "venue": "Frontiers in Public Health",
  "versions": []
}