Prevalence of overweight and obesity in adult Nigerians – a systematic review

Abstract

BackgroundObesity is a major health problem, and there is an increasing trend of overweight and obese individuals in developing countries. Being overweight or obese is known to contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality rates in various countries around the world. We therefore aimed to identify and discuss current epidemiological data on the prevalence of obesity in Nigeria.MethodA systematic review of papers published on the prevalence of obesity among adults in the country was carried out. We covered work published in MEDLINE, PubMed, Google, and African Journals Online using the terms “prevalence of overweight and obesity in Nigeria” or “overweight and obesity in Nigeria.” In addition, personal inquiries were made. The search limits were articles published from January 2001 to September 2012. Only studies that used the body mass index to assess for overweight and obesity were included.ResultsFour studies met the inclusion criteria out of the 75 studies reviewed. In Nigeria, the prevalence of overweight individuals ranged from 20.3%–35.1%, while the prevalence of obesity ranged from 8.1%–22.2%.ConclusionThe prevalence of overweight and obese individuals in Nigeria is of epidemic proportions. There is a need to pay closer attention to combating these health disorders.

Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome in a Burkina Faso Urban Area: Prevalence,Associated Factors and Comorbidities

“…The association between obesity and age, found also in others SSA countries [5,20], supports the conclusion that the prevalence of obesity is expected to increase with the aging of the population. This high frequency can be explained in part by the increase in life expectancy and sedentary lifestyles in developing countries.…”

“…However, according to studies in other urban areas of SSA, the prevalence of obesity varies from 8.3% in Senegal to 37% in Cameroon, through 8.9% in Gabon, 11.5% in Mali, 13.8% in Ivory Coast, 16.1% in Ghana, 19.5% in Guinea, 21.5% in Benin and 22.5% in Nigeria [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. The high rates noted in our study and in these studies could be an indication of a raising of obesity in sub-Saharan Africa, although sampling strategy varied from one study to another.…”

“…Overall in SSA the prevalence of overweight and obesity is higher among women [5,12,[17][18][19][20]. This female predominance could be explained by pregnancies [21] and socio-cultural motivations.…”

“…The acceleration of urbanization in Africa, sedentary lifestyle and the present epidemiological transition in SSA so-called westernization of lifestyle -characterized by decreased amounts of physical activity and increased consumption of energy-dense or high-fat diets as a result of rapid urbanization are factors that increase the prevalence of obesity and therefore, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular risk [5,20,23]. For these reasons, preventing obesity intervention programs designed to reduce waist circumference through lifestyle modification, including exercise and diet, may have important public health significance in reducing the incidence obese related diseases.…”

Gender differences in factors associated with overweight and obesity among civil servants in Lagos, Nigeria

“…In Nigeria, the burden of overweight and obesity is increasing and estimation showed over 20 percent increase in the burden within the last fifteen years (Akarolo-Anthony et al, 2014;Adebayo et al, 2014;Chukwuonye et al, 2013;Wahab et al, 2011). Obesity impairs mental health (Hillman et al, 2010) which could affect productivity, places large burden on health system and leads to fall in productivity following absenteeism, decreased productivity of employees while at work, disability, and premature mortality (Hammond and Levine, 2010;Ricci and Chee, 2005;Fontaine et al, 2010).…”