CORRESPONDING ADDRESS

Background: This study assesses the relation between socio-economic status and adiposity in adults from urban Cameroon. Methods: One thousand five hundred and thirty women and 1301 men aged 25 to 87 years, from 1897 households in the Biyem-Assi health area in the capital of Cameroon, Yaoundé, were interviewed about their household amenities, occupation, education, alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking. Weight, height, and waist circumference were measured and subjects were classified as obese if their BMI> 30 kg/m2 or overweight if BMI was between 25.0 and 29.9 kg/m2. Abdominal obesity was defined by a waist circumference> 80 cm in women and> 94 cm in men. Results: Thirty three percent of women and 30 % of men were overweight (p < 0.08), whereas 22 % of women and 7 % of men were obese (p < 0.001). Abdominal obesity was present in 67 % of women and 18 % of men (p<0.001). After adjusting for age, leisure time physical activity, alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking, the prevalence of obesity and abdominal obesity increased with quartiles of household amenities in both genders, while the prevalence of overweight, obesity and abdominal obesity increased with occupational level in men. Conclusion: Socio-economic status is positively associated with adiposity in urban Cameroon after adjusting for confounding factors