Prevalence of overweight and obesity and associated factors among secondary school adolescents in Lang’ata Sub County Nairobi County Kenya

Abstract

Introduction: Obesity continues to pose major public health challenges globally. Adolescent obesity has far reaching consequences including early deaths, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, obstetric problems in females and some types of cancers. Objective: The broad objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of and factors associated with overweight and obesity. The specific objectives were to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescents in secondary schools in Lang’ata, to determine the socioeconomic factors, dietary practices and physical activity practices associated with overweight and obesity among secondary school adolescents in Langata Sub County Nairobi. Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive survey which was conducted in July 2014 in Lang’ata, Nairobi Kenya. 292 participated in the study. Multistage random sampling was used to select the study participants. Ethical approval was obtained from Institutional research and Ethics committee (IREC) of Moi University and National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI). Head teachers and parents signed consent forms while students signed assent forms. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires and direct and anthropometric measurements of weight and height which was used to compute BAZ. Data was then analyzed using SPSS version 20 and WHO AnthroPlus software. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative variables. The Chi-square tests were used to determine association between selected variables and overweight obesity using 0.05 as the level of significance. For the variables that were significant at bivariate, analysis proceeded to logistic regression. Results: The prevalence of overweight (8.9%) and obesity (8.9%) among the adolescents is 17.8%, (16.96% among males and 20.59% among females respectively). It was significantly higher in private (23.45%) than public schools (12.24%) with a computed p=0.047. Other factors that were positively associated with overweight obesity included being a boarder p=0.004, parents’ ownership of car(s) p=0.004 and caring about portion size of food eaten p=0.008. Conclusion: The prevalence of overweight /obesity amongst secondary school adolescents is high and should be a public health concern to policy planners. It is positively associated with parents’ ownership of car(s), snacking and not caring about portion size of food eaten. Recommendations: The government through the Ministry of Education should consider increasing time for physical education (P.E) sessions in schools and introducing some levy on junk food. A school health and fitness program involving parents is also recommended.