ABNORMAL BODY WEIGHT AND ITS SOCIOECONOMIC DETERMINANTS: EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIA

Obesity and overweight are among the major contributors to the global burden of diseases as measured by Disability-Adjusted Life Years due to its capability of increasing the risks of health related diseases. Strand of literature has focused on the biological factor with less emphasis on socioeconomic factors. Using dataset from the 2013 National Population for Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), this study applies binary probit regression model to examine the socioeconomic determinants of overweight and obesity in Nigeria. The study came up with the following broad stylized facts for overweight and obesity. The socioeconomic determinants of probability of overweight were age, gender, marital status, household size, education years, rural locality, wealth index (if poor), ethnicities and educated female. More so, age, female gender, marital status, household size, education years and educated female influence the probability of overweight among households positively; while age, rural locality, poverty and ethnicities influence the probability of overweight among households negatively. Also, the socioeconomic determinants of probability of obesity are age, female gender, marital status, household size, education years, rural locality, wealth index (if poor), ethnicities, poor female, educated female and educated poor. Finally, the study recommends public health education, cultural and value reorientation among others as solution to the problem of overweight and obesity in Nigeria. JE