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Overweight/obesity among 15- to 24-year-old women in Ghana: 21-year trend, future projections and socio-demographic correlates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2020

Derek Anamaale Tuoyire Open the ORCID record for Derek Anamaale Tuoyire [Opens in a new window]
Derek Anamaale Tuoyire*
Affiliation:
Department of Community Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Ghana
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Although developing countries are experiencing some of the fastest rises in the prevalence of adult overweight and obesity, little is known about the pace of the problem among young people in transition from adolescence to adulthood. This study examined the trend and associated socio-demographic predictors of overweight/obesity (BMI ≥25kg/m2) from 1993 to 2014 among women aged 15–24 years in Ghana and projected the future prevalence from 2019 to 2040. Descriptive statistics, the arithmetic linear change model, and binary logistic regression were applied to data on women aged 15–24 years from five nationally representative Ghana Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in 1993 (N=488), 1998 (N=517), 2003 (N=1832), 2008 (N=1693) and 2014 (N=1491). Overall, overweight/obesity among women aged 15–24 years almost tripled between the 1993 (6.8%; 95% CI=4.9–9.3) and 2014 (19.5%; 95% CI=17.3–21.2) surveys. Based on the arithmetic linear change model, overweight/obesity is projected to increase linearly to over 35% among the 15–24 year cohort of women by 2040. Age, educational level, wealth status, occupation, type of locality, ethnicity, frequency of viewing TV per week, parity and contraceptive use were found to be significant predictors of overweight/obesity among this sub-group of women. The trend of overweight/obesity demonstrated in this group of women could potentially provide momentum for further increases in the prevalence of overweight/obesity and associated health outcomes in the coming years in Ghana. This underscores the need for urgent national-level public health intervention efforts to curtail the problem.

Keywords

Obesity and overweightYoung womenGhana
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 53 , Issue 6 , November 2021 , pp. 839 - 855
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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