Addo et al. BMC Res Notes (2015) 8:599 DOI 10.1186/s13104-015-1590-1
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Prevalence of obesity and overweight and associated factors among financial institution workers in Accra Metropolis, Ghana: a cross sectional study Prince N. O. Addo1*, Kofi M. Nyarko1,2, Samuel O. Sackey1, Patricia Akweongo1 and Bismark Sarfo1
Abstract Background: Certain professions are associated with low physical activity. Workers in such professions spend the most part of their adult working lives less engaged in physical activity if they don’t consciously exercise outside of working hours. This increases their risk of obesity and its associated diseases. This study determined the prevalence of obesity and overweight and associated factors among workers of a financial institution in Accra Metropolis, Ghana. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 180 workers of a financial institution in Accra using the World Health Organization’s STEPS (STEPwise approach) instrument for non-communicable disease risk factor surveillance. Relevant sociodemographic information were recorded and BMI was computed for each respondent. Results: The overall prevalence of obesity and overweight among the bank workers was 55.6 % (17.8 % obese and 37.8 % overweight). After adjusting for other variables, physical activity (OR = 0.34, 95 % CI = 0.13–0.89, p = 0.03), alcohol consumption (OR = 3.00, 95 % CI = 1.35, 6.68, p = 0.007), marital status (OR = 2.74, 95 % CI = 0.96–7.85, p = 0.04), sex (OR = 2.78, 95 % CI = 1.23–6.33, p = 0.01), and age (OR = 1.10, 95 % CI = 1.01–1.20, p = 0.036) were significantly associated with obesity and overweight. Conclusion: Being physically inactive, consumption of alcohol, being married and a female, in addition to old age, increase the risk of obesity and overweight significantly. These factors should inform policy makers in developing strategies to reduce the burden of obesity and overweight among this category of workers. Keywords: Obesity, Overweight, Body Mass Index, Financial Institution, Physical Activity, Cross-sectional, Work place Background The human body needs energy to function and food is the source of this energy. The body stores excess energy mainly in the form of fats [1, 2]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), when an individual’s health is impaired by excessive body fat, that person is said to be obese. Obesity, which is the Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than or equal to 30 kg/m2 of an individual is a major risk *Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, P. O. Box LG 13, Legon, Accra, Ghana Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
factor for several non-communicable diseases [3, 4 5]. Notable among these are diabetes (type 2), sleep disorders, depression, anxiety, cancers and many cardiovascular diseases [6]. As BMI increases, the risks of these diseases also increase [3]. In 2013, obesity was classified as a disease by the American Medical Association to get physicians to pay more attention to this condition [7]. World Health Organization updated report [8], shows that the prevalence of obesity worldwide has increased tremendously since 1980. The report indicates that 39 and 13 % of people 18 years and above were overweight and obese respectively in 2014. Obesity and overweight kills more people than underweight in many countries,
© 2015 Addo et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Addo et al. BMC Res Notes (2015) 8:599
and these countries account for 65 % of the global population [8]. Obesity is rapidly establishing itself as a public health problem in several developing countries [9, 10, 11] with urban communities having higher prevalence of obesity, particularly among those of higher socioeconomic status [6, 12, 13, 14]. A substantial decrease in physical activity levels and energy expenditure, coupled with an increase in energy intake has been reported as the main factors promoting obesity [15]. The World Health Organization reported that the principal reason for this excess weight problem is an energy imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended. Increasing intake of foods high in energy and decreasing level of physical activity due to increasing urbanization, changing modes of transportation and sedentary working environments account for this energy balance [8]. Certain individual level factors and lifestyles have been known to be major risk factors for obesity. Obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) and overweight (BMI
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Prevalence of obesity and overweight and associated factors among financial institution workers in Accra Metropolis, Ghana: a cross sectional study Prince N. O. Addo1*, Kofi M. Nyarko1,2, Samuel O. Sackey1, Patricia Akweongo1 and Bismark Sarfo1
Abstract Background: Certain professions are associated with low physical activity. Workers in such professions spend the most part of their adult working lives less engaged in physical activity if they don’t consciously exercise outside of working hours. This increases their risk of obesity and its associated diseases. This study determined the prevalence of obesity and overweight and associated factors among workers of a financial institution in Accra Metropolis, Ghana. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 180 workers of a financial institution in Accra using the World Health Organization’s STEPS (STEPwise approach) instrument for non-communicable disease risk factor surveillance. Relevant sociodemographic information were recorded and BMI was computed for each respondent. Results: The overall prevalence of obesity and overweight among the bank workers was 55.6 % (17.8 % obese and 37.8 % overweight). After adjusting for other variables, physical activity (OR = 0.34, 95 % CI = 0.13–0.89, p = 0.03), alcohol consumption (OR = 3.00, 95 % CI = 1.35, 6.68, p = 0.007), marital status (OR = 2.74, 95 % CI = 0.96–7.85, p = 0.04), sex (OR = 2.78, 95 % CI = 1.23–6.33, p = 0.01), and age (OR = 1.10, 95 % CI = 1.01–1.20, p = 0.036) were significantly associated with obesity and overweight. Conclusion: Being physically inactive, consumption of alcohol, being married and a female, in addition to old age, increase the risk of obesity and overweight significantly. These factors should inform policy makers in developing strategies to reduce the burden of obesity and overweight among this category of workers. Keywords: Obesity, Overweight, Body Mass Index, Financial Institution, Physical Activity, Cross-sectional, Work place Background The human body needs energy to function and food is the source of this energy. The body stores excess energy mainly in the form of fats [1, 2]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), when an individual’s health is impaired by excessive body fat, that person is said to be obese. Obesity, which is the Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than or equal to 30 kg/m2 of an individual is a major risk *Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, P. O. Box LG 13, Legon, Accra, Ghana Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
factor for several non-communicable diseases [3, 4 5]. Notable among these are diabetes (type 2), sleep disorders, depression, anxiety, cancers and many cardiovascular diseases [6]. As BMI increases, the risks of these diseases also increase [3]. In 2013, obesity was classified as a disease by the American Medical Association to get physicians to pay more attention to this condition [7]. World Health Organization updated report [8], shows that the prevalence of obesity worldwide has increased tremendously since 1980. The report indicates that 39 and 13 % of people 18 years and above were overweight and obese respectively in 2014. Obesity and overweight kills more people than underweight in many countries,
© 2015 Addo et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Addo et al. BMC Res Notes (2015) 8:599
and these countries account for 65 % of the global population [8]. Obesity is rapidly establishing itself as a public health problem in several developing countries [9, 10, 11] with urban communities having higher prevalence of obesity, particularly among those of higher socioeconomic status [6, 12, 13, 14]. A substantial decrease in physical activity levels and energy expenditure, coupled with an increase in energy intake has been reported as the main factors promoting obesity [15]. The World Health Organization reported that the principal reason for this excess weight problem is an energy imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended. Increasing intake of foods high in energy and decreasing level of physical activity due to increasing urbanization, changing modes of transportation and sedentary working environments account for this energy balance [8]. Certain individual level factors and lifestyles have been known to be major risk factors for obesity. Obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) and overweight (BMI
