Overweight/obesity among adults in North-Western Ethiopia: a community-based cross sectional study

BACKGROUND: Nowadays adulthood overweight/obesity is an emerging public health problem in developing countries. There is no information on magnitude and contributing factors of adulthood overweight/obesity in Ethiopia, particularly in North West region of the country. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess magnitude and contributing factors of adulthood overweight/obesity in North West region of Ethiopia. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from September1, 2015 to November 30, 2015 in northwest region of Ethiopia particularly Bahir-Dar city and its rural districts. A total of 1484 adult participants were recruited in the study. Stratified multistage followed by systematic random sampling technique was employed to select participants. Overweight/obesity was determined using center for diseases control cutoff points. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was fitted to identify factors associated with overweight/obesity. Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with the corresponding 95% Confidence Interval (CI) was calculated to show the strength of association. RESULTS: A total of 1405 adults were participated in the study with a response rate of 94.7%. This study indicated that 11.3 (95% CI: 9.6, 13.1) adults were overweight and obese of which about 9.3% and 2% of adults were overweight and obese, respectively. The higher odds of being Overweight/Obese were noted among urban residents, females and older age. However performing mild to moderate physical activity [AOR = 0.608, 95% CI: 0.37, 0.99] and consumption of fruit and vegetable [AOR = 0.51, 95% CI: 0.34, 0.77] were found to be protective against overweight/obesity. CONCLUSION: Though, it was a problem of developed countries adulthood overweight /obesity is emerged as a public health problem among adults in Ethiopia particularly in the study area, northwest region. Hence, preventive interventions focusing on urban residents, females through encouraging Physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption is essential to prevent emergence of adulthood overweight/obesity.