Prevalence and factors associated with obesity among adult women of Nepal

Introduction Theobjectiveofthestudywastoexploretheprevalenceand factors associated with obesity among adult women of Ramkot VDC (Village Development Committee), Kathmandu district of Nepal. Materials and Methods A cross-sectional descriptive study was usedto explore the prevalence and factors associated with obesity among adult women of age group between 20 to 59 years old. Five wards were selectedrandomly on the lottery drawn and quota sampling basis. 22 samples were drawn from each selected wards. There were 110 sample sizes. A questionnaire guided interview method. BMI was calculated by following formula: weight in kg/height in m2. Findings The prevalence of obesity and overweight is 24.5 and 1.8% respectively and there is no association between 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 in their diet had high BMI indicating overweight and obesity. The significance difference of taking fruits daily or not, was showed by the chi square (p value) i.e. 0.013. Conclusion Thefindingofthisstudyshowsthattheprevalenceofoverweightamongwomenwas24.5% and prevalence of obesity was 1.8%. Overweight and obesity of women was not associated with physical activities, whether women were vegetarian or non-vegetarian and frequency of food they usually took. But the women who took fruits frequently in their diet had low body mass index than women who took fruits less frequently. In other word, overweight and obesity among women was associated with fruits intake less frequently