Prevalence and factors associated with obesity among adults in the general outpatient clinic of Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital Lafia

Abstract

Background: Obesity is a non-communicable disease-causing morbidity and mortality worldwide with at least 2.8 million adult deaths yearly. Many people ignorantly look at obesity as evidence of good living. For this, they do not consult physicians on how to reduce and  maintain healthy weight. They subsequently develop obesity-related medical conditions like diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases,  and pathological fractures. This study aimed at determining the prevalence and factors for obesity among adults.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study in the GOPC of Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. A semi- structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used to recruit 125 adults using systematic random sampling technique. Their  weight in kilograms and height in meters were measured using standard techniques and were used to calculate their BMI. SPSS version  2020 was used for data analysis.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 42.6±15.3 years and there were more females (64%) than  males (36%). The prevalence of obesity was 17.6% (Females 14.4% and 3.2% in males). Class I obesity was the commonest type. Eight  participants (6.4%) were underweight (BMI below 18.5 kg/m² ). Majority (55.2%) had normal weight (BMI 18.5 – 24.9 kg/m² ). The risk  factors for obesity were hypertension (p=0.0097), fatty food (p=0.0009) and red meat (0.0001). Family history of obesity (p=0.0148) was an  independent risk factor following logistic regression.

Conclusion: The 17.6% prevalence of obesity in this study was higher but close to  the Nigerian national prevalence of 14.3% as at the year 2020. There is growing prevalence of obesity among adults with associated risk  factors like eating fatty food, preference of red meat to fish, personal history of hypertension and family history of obesity. There is the  need to regularly screen and counsel adult patients to reduce the growing burden of obesity.