Socio-demographic, lifestyle and psycho-social factors associated with overweight and obesity among health care workers in Kisumu East sub-county, Kenya.

Abstract

Over 2.8 million deaths annually and 35.8 million (2.3%) of global Disability Adjusted Life Years are attributed to overweight, making it the fifth leading risk for global deaths. In Kenya, 23.1% of the population is estimated to be either overweight or obese and the problem is rapidly increasing. Even though healthcare workers are a group considered well informed of aetiology of overweight/obesity, they have been reported to be disproportionately affected by the same problem. However, the problem and its associated factors among healthcare workers in Kenya and Kisumu East in particular remain un-investigated. The aim of this study was to determine sociodemographic, lifestyle and psycho-social factors associated with overweight/obesity among healthcare workers in Kisumu East subcounty. Analytical cross-sectional design was adopted for this study. Data was collected using questionnaires, electronic weighing scale (SECA 876) and height measuring bar. Body Mass Index was classified using World Health Organization guidelines. A total of 165 out of a population of 783 healthcare workers were sampled from 9 health facilities proportionate to population size, at each facility respondents were selected by systematic random sampling. Females comprised 65.5% and males 34.5%, mean age was 37.1 years. Among the respondents, 58.8% were either overweight or obese. Socio-demographic factors associated with overweight/obesity were gender, age and marital status (p < 0.05). Religion, socio-economic status, residence, parity and family obesity history were not associated with overweight/obesity (p>0.05). Vigorous physical activity was the only lifestyle factor associated with overweight/obesity (p < 0.05), other factors namely, moderate physical activity, walking to places, number of hours spent sitting per day, alcohol intake, hours of sleep per day and night shift work were not associated with overweight/obesity (p>0.05). Psycho-social factors namely perceived Body Mass Index status and satisfaction with own body weight were significantly associated with overweight/obesity (p < 0.05), however stress level was not (p>0.05). In logistic regression analysis, age was the only independent predictor as respondents of age 40-49 were seven times more likely to be overweight or obese compared to those below 30 years OR (95% CI) = 7.3(2.0-25.98) p = 0.002 (p<0.05). Given that age was the only independent predictor of overweight/obesity, there is need to implement overweight/obesity prevention and control interventions among healthcare workers particularly among those above 40 years and sensitize them on the importance of awareness of one’s own body weight.