Determinants of obesity among women in the reproductive age group in Uganda

Abstract

Uganda is known as one of the many African countries that has an increasing number obese people. The prevalence rate of obesity for Uganda was 24% according to the Demographic Health Survey of 2016 (DHS 2016). The Global Nutrition Report of 2020 states that Uganda has shown no progress towards achieving the target for obesity, with an estimated 10.4% of adult’s women and 2.3%of the adult men living with obesity. Uganda’s prevalence is lower than the regional average of 20.7% of women and 9.2% of men. This proves that the prevalence rate of obesity in Ugandan women is increasing though at a fast rate. According to the Uganda Demographic health survey of 2016 Kampala region has a prevalence rate of 4.4% women obese making it the region with the highest obesity prevalence rate in Uganda. The increasing number of obesity in women in Uganda is mainly contributed by the improving education facilities, employment status and marital status. This study used the 2016 UDHS dataset to examine the factors that influence obesity among women aged 15-49 years in Uganda. The characteristics of the respondents were discussed according to the results that were obtained from Univariate descriptive tables that were used to show the distribution of respondents by their characteristics while cross tabulation was used in the bivariate tables to assess the relationship between obesity and the characteristics of the respondents. Pearson’s chi-squared tests were used to ascertain the association between the independent variables and obesity at 95% CI (p-value < 0.05). Results show that obesity had a statistically significant association with education P= (0.000), type of residence P= (0.000), wealth index P= (0.000), marital status P= (0.000), working status P= (0.0132), listening to radio P= (0.000), watching television P= (0.000) and age of the respondent P= (0.000) (p-value < 0.05). The study recommends government and policy makers to invest more in the education sector, integrate teenage friendly programs in the health care, and to also advocate for physical exercise in order to reduce obesity and its likely effects, sexual and reproductive health programs.