Prevalence, Distribution and Determinants of Obesity among South African Adults with Hypertension and Diabetes



Charity Masilela1, *, Brendon Pearce1, Joven Jebio Ongole2, Rabia Johnson3, Oladele Vincent Adeniyi4, Mongi Benjeddou1
1 Department of Biotechnology, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South
2 Department of Family Medicine, Center for Teaching and Learning, Piet Retief Hospital, Mkhondo, South Africa
3 South African Medical research council, Biomedical Research and Innovative Platform, Tygerberg, South
4 Department of Family Medicine, Walter Sisulu University, East London, South Africa

Abstract

Background:

There is paucity of epidemiological data on the prevalence and determinants of obesity among South African adults with co-morbidities. This study therefore examined the prevalence, distribution, and determinants of obesity among South African adults with co-morbidities of hypertension and diabetes.

Methods:

A total of 614 South African adults attending chronic care for diabetes mellitus and hypertension were recruited. Obesity was defined as BMI ≥ 30.0kg/m2 and morbid obesity was defined as BMI ≥40 kg/m2. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify the significant determinants of obesity and morbid obesity.

Results:

Two-thirds of all participants were females [n = 461]. The overall prevalence of obesity among the study participants was 58.31%, of whom 15.15% were categorised as morbidly obese. In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, female sex [AOR=2.33; 95%CI 1.49-3.64], primary education [AOR=1.53, 95%CI 1.04-2.26], and LDL-C ≥2.6 mmol/L [AOR=0.64 95% CI 0.43-0.95] were independently associated with obesity. Also, women were almost six times more likely to be morbidly obese than men.

Conclusion:

A high prevalence of obesity attributed to sex, primary education and dyslipidaemia was found among the study participants. Aggressive and culturally sensitive obesity management and prevention strategies across the country need to be implemented to lower the incidence of cardiovascular diseases.

Keywords: Obesity, Morbid obesity, Co-morbidities, Prevalence, Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Abstract Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2021
Volume: 14
DOI: 10.2174/18749445-v14-e210728-2021-33

Article History:

Electronic publication date: 28/7/2021
Collection year: 2021

© 2021 Masilela et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.


* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Biotechnology, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, Cape Town. Code: 7535, South Africa; Email: chemasilela@gmail.com