Evaluation of health status and its predictor among university staff in Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Hypertension, diabetes mellitus and obesity share some characteristics in relation to diagnosis, management, and prevention. Overweight, obesity and waist-hip ratio (WHR) are associated with increased risk for development of diabetes and hypertension. Surveillance and regular screening exercises are essential in control and prevention of overweight, obesity, diabetes and hypertension. There is limited literature that reported on these health status parameters among university staff in low- and middle-income countries such as Nigeria. It is currently unclear whether Nigerian have a high or low proportion of metabolic risk factors. Therefore, the study aims to examine health status parameters and their predictors among university staff in Nigeria. METHODS: The study used a cross-sectional descriptive design. Data were collected from 280 university staff in Nigeria. A self-administered questionnaire with sections for sociodemographic data and physical assessment was used to gather information from the participants. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (IBM-SPSS version 25). Univariable and multivariable logistic regression was conducted to explore the association between predictors and health status parameters of the participants. RESULT: The response rate was 87.5%. University staff had mean systolic blood pressure of 132.04 mmHg ± 19.20 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure of 78.11 mmHg ± 10.81 mmHg, body mass index of 27.74 ± 5.22, waist-hip ratio of 0.88 ± 0.68 and random blood sugar of 98.65 ± 21.30 mg/dL. Predictors of high blood pressure were age (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.10, CI 95%: [1.05–1.14]) and gender (aOR = 0.5, CI 95%: [0.8–0.9]) and predictors of body mass index were gender (aOR = 2.3, CI 95%: [1.3–4.2]) and religion (aOR = 0.3, CI 95%: [0.2–0.7]). Gender and age had statistically significant association with waist-hip ratio and random blood sugar respectively. CONCLUSION: The prevalence rates of high blood pressure and random blood sugar; overweight, obesity and risk WHR are on the increase compared to previous studies. Lifestyle modification, organized and explicit health campaigns coupled with regular screening and surveillance will contribute to the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12872-018-0918-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.