Prevalence and risks factors of overweight/obesity among Undergraduate students: An institutional based cross-sectional study, Ghana

Abstract

Obesity and overweight are lifestyle conditions affecting more than half of the younger adult population.This study determined the prevalence and risks factors of obesity and overweight among undergraduatestudents in Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. This institutionalbased cross-sectional study conducted between November, 2013 and February, 2014 recruited three hundred (300) students from the various academic colleges. Self-structured questionnaire was used to obtainsocio-demographic and lifestyle related characteristics. Blood pressure, weight, height, waist circumference(WC) and hip circumference (HC) were measured. The overall prevalence of obesity and overweight was1.7% (5/300) and 16.0% (48/300) using BMI; 13.3% (40/300) and 8.7% (26/300) using WC; 19.0%(57/300) and 20.0% (60/300) respectively using WHR while obesity was 28.7% (86/300) using WHtR.Generally, obesity was higher in females than males (p=0.0149). Drinking 2-4 bottles of alcohol per day wasassociated with obesity than overweight (40.0% (2/5) vs. 8.3% (4/48); p=0.0175). Increased prevalence ofobesity was associated with fourth year students. About 22.9% (11/48) of students in Agric and natural science were more likely to be overweight while 40.0% (2/5) from health sciences were more likely to beobese. Akans and Ga-Adangbes were more likely to be overweight and obese respectively. Being femalewas an independent risk factor for obesity/overweight (OR = 12.67, 95% CI = 0.926-17.042; p=0.0020).This study indicated that obesity and overweight were predominantly associated with female undergraduatestudents. The use of WC, WHR and WHtR in combination with BMI is essential.Journal of Medical and Biomedical Sciences (2017) 6(1), 24-34Keywords: Obesity, Overweight, Risk, Undergraduate, Students