Diabetes and Diabetic Nurse Education and Practice

Biography

Biography: Mandira Shahi

Abstract

Prevalence and factors associated with obesity among adult women of Nepal

Mandira Shahi, Laxmi Rai, Raj Devi Adhikari, and Muna Sharma

Tribhuvan University, Nepal

More than 1.4 billion adults, 20 years and older, were overweight, of these overweight adults, over 200 million men and nearly 300 million women were obese. The objective of the study was to explore the prevalence and factors associated with obesity among adult women of Ramkot VDC (Village Development Committee), Kathmandu district of Nepal. A cross-sectional descriptive study was used to explore the prevalence and factors associated with obesity among adult women of the age group between 20 to 59 years. Five wards were selected randomly on the lottery is drawn and quota sampling basis. 22 samples were drawn from each selected wards and there were 110 sample sizes. A questionnaire guided interview method was incorporated BMI was calculated by following the formula: weight in kg/height in m². The prevalence of obesity and overweight is 24.5% and 1.8% respectively. There is no association of BMI with caste, education, and age. 81.7% of respondents, who consumed fruits more than five times a week had low BMI, whereas 44% of respondents, who consumed fruits less than once a week, had high BMI indicating overweight and obesity. The significant difference between consuming fruits daily or not was shown by the chi-square (p-value) i.e. 0.013. The finding of this study shows that the prevalence of overweight and obesity among women was 24.5% and 1.8% respectively. Overweight and obesity of women was not associated with physical activities, vegetarian or non-vegetarian diet nor the frequency of food they usually took. But the women who consumed fruits frequently in their diet had a low body mass index than women who consumed fruits less frequently. To conclude, overweight and obesity among adult women in Nepal were associated with scarce fruit intake.