Environmental factors associated with overweight among adults in Nigeria

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

Research

Benedicte Deforche¹  James F Sallis²  Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij³  Babatunde O Adegoke⁴  Adewale L Oyeyemi⁵  Adetoyeje Y Oyeyemi⁵ 

[1] Department of Biometry and Biomechanics, Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Brussels, Belgium;Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium;Department of Family & Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, USA;Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium;Department of Physiotherapy, College of Medical Sciences, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria;Department of Physiotherapy, College of Medical Sciences, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Nigeria;

关键词: Overweight;    Obesity;    Neighborhood environment;    Africa.;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1479-5868-9-32

 received in 2011-10-16, accepted in 2012-03-27,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundUnderstanding environmental factors related to obesity can inform interventions for the world wide obesity epidemic, yet no study has been conducted in this context in Africa. This study examined associations between neighbourhood environment variables and overweight in Nigerian adults.MethodsA total of 1818 randomly selected residents (age: 20-65 years, 40% female, 31% overweight and 61.2% response) living in high and low socioeconomic (SES) neighbourhoods in Metropolitan Maiduguri, Nigeria, participated in a cross-sectional study. Anthropometric measurements of height and weight and an interview-assisted self-reported measure of 16 items of perceived neighborhood environments were conducted. The primary outcome was overweight (body mass index [BMI] > or = 25 kg/m2) vs. normal weight (BMI = 18.5-24.9 kg/m2).ResultsAfter adjustment for sociodemographic variables, overweight was associated with distant access to commercial facilities (odds ratio [OR], 1.49; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02- 2.18), poor neighbourhood aesthetics (OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.16-2.09), perceiving garbage and offensive odours in the neighbourhood (OR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.05-1.89) and feeling unsafe from crime at night (OR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.13- 1.91) and unsafe from traffic (OR, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.17-2.07) in the total sample. Significant interactions regarding overweight were found between gender and four environmental variables, with low residential density (OR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.02-1.93) and poorly maintained pedestrian pathways (OR, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.13-3.17) associated with overweight in men only, and absence of beautiful things (OR, 2.23; 95% CI, 1.42-3.50) and high traffic making it unsafe to walk (OR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.49-3.83) associated with overweight in women only. There were few significant interactions between environmental factors and neighborhood SES regarding overweight.ConclusionNeighbourhood environment factors were associated with being overweight among Nigerian adults. These findings support previous reports in international literature, but should be replicated in other African studies before any firm conclusions can be drawn.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Oyeyemi et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012