Obesity and Its Cardio-metabolic Co-morbidities Among Adult Nigerians in a Primary Care Clinic of a Tertiary Hospital in South-Eastern, Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Obesity once thought the medical problem of affluent countries now exist in Nigeria and has been described as a time bomb for the future explosion in the frequency of cardio-metabolic diseases. The most deleterious health consequences of obesity are on the cardiovascular system and associated disorder of lipid and glucose homeostasis. AIM: This study was designed to determine the magnitude of obesity and its cardio-metabolic co-morbidities among adult Nigerians in a primary care clinic of a tertiary hospital South-Eastern, Nigeria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study carried out on 2391 adult Nigerians who were assessed for obesity using body mass index (BMI) criterion. 206 patients who had BMI ≥30kg/m(2) were screened for cardio-metabolic co-morbidities. The data collected included basic demographic variables, weight, height, blood pressure; fasting plasma glucose and lipid profile. RESULTS: The prevalence of obesity was 8.6%. Grade I obesity (67.5%) was the most common pattern; others included grade II obesity (23.3%) and grade III obesity (9.2%). Hypertension (42.7%) was the most common cardio-metabolic morbidity. Others included low HDL-cholesterol (22.8%), diabetes mellitus (15.1%), high triglyceride (12.6%), high total cholesterol (9.2%), and high LDL-cholesterol (6.8%). CONCLUSION: Obesity and its cardio-metabolic morbidities exist among the study population. Anthropometric determination of obesity and screening for its associated cardio-metabolic co-morbidities should constitute clinical targets for intervention in primary care clinics.