Overweight/Obesity and associated factors among preschool children in Gondar City, Northwest Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundOverweight and obesity among children has emerged as one of the most serious public health concerns in the 21st century, which is a predictor of adulthood obesity, morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of overweight /obesity and associated factors among preschool children.MethodsA community based cross-sectional study was conducted in Gondar City from February 14 to March 4, 2016. Multi stage sampling technique was used to select a total of 504 preschool children. Data were collected using structured interviewer administered questionnaire and anthropometric measurements. Data were entered using Epidata version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 20 and WHO 2007 Anthro version 2.0.4 software. Both bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed to identify associated factors. P values <0.05 with 95% confidence level were used to declare statistical significance.ResultsA total of 500 study participants were included with 99.2% response rate and 51.6% were girls while 48.4% were boys. The mean (±SD) age of participants was 47.68 ±7.19 months. The combined prevalence of overweight /obesity was 13.8% (95%CI; 10.6, 17.2) the specific being 9.6% for overweight and 4.2% for obesity. The multivariable analysis indicated that the age group between 36–47 months [AOR = 2.38 (95%CI; 1.27,4.46)],high dietary diversity[AOR = 3.73(95%CI;1.15,12.54),consumption of sweet food[AOR = 2.69 (95%CI,1.21, 5.98)],time spent in watching television>2hr/day [AOR = 4.01 (95%CI;2.22, 7.26)] and mother’s education at secondary level [AOR = 0.35 (95% CI; 0.12, 0.96)] were associated with overweight/obesity among preschool children.ConclusionsOnce considered a high income country problem, result of this study in urban city like Gondar reveals that overweight/obesity is on the rise in urban Ethiopia, which indicates the need for formulating preventive programs and policies during a child’s early years.

Overweight and Obesity among children under five in Ethiopia: Further Analysis of 2016 National Demographic Health Survey: A Case Control Study

“…Younger children had higher odds of becoming overweight or obese than their older counterparts. This is corroborated with studies done in Hawassa, Ethiopia [14], Gondar, Ethiopia [15], Cameroon [16], SSA [9] and Malaysia [17]. This might be explained by the fact that as age of the child increases, the chance to join kindergarten would increase and hence may attribute to increased physical activity which ultimately would lead to increased metabolic activity and energy requirements.…”

Obesity in Preschoolers in a Region in Western Turkey and Related Factors

“…In the present study, the prevalence of overweight/obesity in the participating children was 16.1% [overweight (4.9%), obese (11.2%)]. The review of similar studies conducted in various countries demonstrated that while the prevalence of overweight / obesity in preschoolers varied between 4% and 21% in some studies, which was consistent with the results of the present study [4,5,9,[13][14][15][16][17] , it was lower in some studies [14][15][16][17] , and higher in some other studies [18,19] . For instance, the rate was higher in two studies conducted in Iran and Vietnam [35.7% [18] and 21% [20] respectively], and was lower in a study conducted in Cameroon [8% [16] ] than that in the present study.…”

“…This result is similar to those of the studies conducted in Iraq [24] , Iran [18] and Kenya [19] . Children's watching television long hours not only prevents them from participating in physical activities adequately but also encourages them to consume sweet and salty foods [14,28] . One of the interesting results of the present study is that the children whose mothers were university graduates were more obese than were the others.…”

Factors associated with nutritional status and motor development among young children

“…For example, a study from southwest China identified a positive association between the DDS and increased risk of obesity among adults, which was attributed to excessive energy and deficient micronutrients, along with increasing dietary diversity. Consistent results were also found among preschool children in studies in southeast rural China (Lyu et al, ) and a city in Ethiopia (Sorrie et al, ). In this study, the high DDS was a significant predictor for increased risk of childhood overweight (Table ).…”

“…The DDS is a simple and quick indicator of dietary adequacy and is a predictor of improved nutritional status (Steyn, Nel, Nantel, Kennedy, & Labadarios, ). However, the DDS is also positively associated with obesity (Lyu et al, ; Sorrie, Yesuf, & Gebremichael, ). For example, a study from southwest China identified a positive association between the DDS and increased risk of obesity among adults, which was attributed to excessive energy and deficient micronutrients, along with increasing dietary diversity.…”