Overweight and obesity: Emerging pandemic in Africa?

Overweight and obesity: Emerging pandemic in Africa? Abstract Background

Underweight women are susceptible to several infectious diseases while overweight and obese women are at a higher risk for several chronic diseases including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and some cancers. There is limited literature informing different aspects of weight in Africa. The goal of this paper is to examine the prevalence, trend and socio-economic inequalities in weight in Africa. Methods

The study used 235,906 women from 74 nationally representative surveys conducted in 34 countries. Various regression methods were employed to assess the association between weight and socioeconomic status (SES). Education and wealth were employed as SES indicators with various control variables. Time dummies were included to assess the trend in the prevalence of and socio-economic inequalities in obesity. Results

Overall, 13% of women were underweight while 17% were either overweight or obese. Overweight/obesity increased while underweight decreased as the level of wealth and education increased. Women in the wealthiest households were nine times more likely to be obese, three times more likely to be overweight and 50% less likely to be underweight (P<0.001) compared to women in the poorest households. Similarly, women with secondary or higher education were nearly twice as likely to be obese, 70% more likely to be overweight and 55% less likely to be underweight (P<0.001) compared to women without education. The trend analysis showed that underweight was falling by 0.8% per year while overweight/obesity was rising by 3.2%. While underweight decreased at a similar rate in urban and rural settings, overweight/obesity was increasing nearly three times faster among women in rural areas. Conclusions

The concentration of overweight/obesity among the higher SES provides little justification for policy intervention on equity grounds. However, its fast rate of growth among the poor and rural areas justifies such an intervention.