Prevalence of excess body weight and associated factors among secondary school adolescent girls in northern Tanzania: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction excess body weight among adolescents is on the increase and has become a global public health challenge. It is likely to persist to adulthood, exposing to risk of developing chronic diseases. However, there is insufficient information on the prevalence of excess body weight and associated factors among adolescent girls in secondary schools in northern Tanzania. Methods this cross-sectional study involved 400 secondary school adolescent girls, selected by multi-stage cluster sampling. A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather information. Anthropometric measurements were taken and body mass index calculated. Descriptive statistics summarized the data. Logistic regression was used to model excess body weight resulting into adjusted odds ratios with their 95% confidence intervals and significant level was set at p-value<0.05. Results the proportion of adolescents with excess body weight (BMI >+1SD) was 23%. The majority (63%), reported unhealthy dietary habits while half (51.5%) of them had moderate level of knowledge on healthy eating. Compared to working as a civil servant, the odds of having excess body weight among girls whose mothers/female guardians were housewives was less by 60% (aOR=0.4, 95%CI: 0.2, 0.9). Furthermore, the odds of having excess body weight among adolescents eating unhealthy foods were almost six times higher compared to their peers on healthy diet (aOR=5.8, 95%CI: 2.9, 11.3). Conclusion prevalence of excess body weight among adolescent girls in northern Tanzania is high. Unhealthy dietary habits and mother's/female guardian's occupation were significant correlates of excess body weight. We recommend platforms to inform adolescents on the importance of proper food intake and to advance knowledge on dangers of excessive weight gain as a strategy towards prevention of nutrition-related diseases.

Worldwide relative smoking prevalence among people living with and without HIV

“…Fourteen studies had a higher risk of methodological bias (Newcastle–Ottawa Scores ≤6) [46,47,50,59,60,66–68,71,73,76–79]. Among these studies, the OR of current smoking in PLH was 2.06 (95% CI: 1.57–2.71).…”

“…Nine studies were from Europe (Denmark, France, Spain, UK) [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54], 17 were from the Americas (Brazil, Canada, Haiti, USA) [55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71] and seven studies were from Africa (Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe) [72][73][74][75][76][77][78]. Two studies drew participants from Western Pacific (Australia and China) [79,80].…”

Eating behavior of adolescent girls in countries with a high prevalence of stunting under five: a systematic review

“…Most of the studies in this review utilized a cross-sectional design, with only one using a mixed-method explanatory design ( Debasish et al, 2021 ). The studies were conducted in India ( Mishra and Mukhopadhyay, 2011 ; Dixit et al, 2014 ; Debasish et al, 2021 ), Malaysia ( Soo et al, 2008 ), Indonesia ( Mahriani et al, 2022 ), Ethiopia ( Berheto et al, 2015 ; Birru et al, 2018 ; Worku et al, 2022 ), South Africa ( Visser et al, 2014 ), Guatemala ( Kurschner et al, 2020 ), Bangladesh ( Alam et al, 2010 ), Tanzania ( Tengia-Kessy and Killenga, 2020 ), Nigeria ( Agofure et al, 2021 ), Pakistan ( Javaid et al, 2020 ), and Timor Leste ( Maria Soares and Yamarat, 2014 ).…”

“…Although the target population of this study is adolescent girls, not all studies focus on the same age range, the adolescent period is divided into three stages: early (ages 11–14), mid (ages 15–17), and late (ages 18–21) ( Mahriani et al, 2022 ). In this study, two studies only focused on the early stage ( Visser et al, 2014 ; Javaid et al, 2020 ), one study on the mid-stage ( Soo et al, 2008 ), three studies on the early to mid-stage ( Maria Soares and Yamarat, 2014 ; Berheto et al, 2015 ; Mahriani et al, 2022 ), two studies on the mid to late-stage ( Mishra and Mukhopadhyay, 2011 ; Kurschner et al, 2020 ), and the majority of studies focused on the entire adolescent period from early to late ( Alam et al, 2010 ; Dixit et al, 2014 ; Birru et al, 2018 ; Tengia-Kessy and Killenga, 2020 ; Agofure et al, 2021 ; Debasish et al, 2021 ; Worku et al, 2022 ). These studies are listed with the age range mentioned in the text, along with the study number and corresponding reference.…”

“…All studies utilize different assessment tools to evaluate changes in eating behavior targets. Four studies employed self-designed questionnaires ( Dixit et al, 2014 ; Maria Soares and Yamarat, 2014 ; Birru et al, 2018 ; Agofure et al, 2021 ), while the others used standardized, validated scales such as the Food Frequency Questionnaire ( Mishra and Mukhopadhyay, 2011 ; Tengia-Kessy and Killenga, 2020 ), Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire ( Soo et al, 2008 ), Adolescent Food Habit Checklist ( Mahriani et al, 2022 ), Household Food Security ( Berheto et al, 2015 ; Worku et al, 2022 ), and Eating Attitude Test ( Visser et al, 2014 ). Qualitative research employs assessment tools in the form of open-ended questionnaires delivered through focus group discussions (FGD) ( Debasish et al, 2021 ) and interviews ( Alam et al, 2010 ; Javaid et al, 2020 ; Kurschner et al, 2020 ).…”