Abstract:
The study was intended to assess risk factors associated with overweight and obesity among
Reproductive Aged Females residing in Itahari Sub-metropolitan city. A cross-sectional
qualitative study was performed on 202 reproductive-aged females of 15-49 years of age
with a structured questionnaire. Weight, height, waist and hip circumference were measured
to determine indicators of overweight and obesity. General obesity was determined using
WHO BMI classification while, WC and WHR analyzed abdominal obesity as per IDF and
WHO criteria respectively. For data analysis, Microsoft package 16 (Excel and Word) and
SPSS Statistics version 20 was used. Chi-square test was used to establish association
between variables under study.
The study revealed 29.2% of respondents were overweight and 9.4% were obese; 59.9%
of them were abdominally obese by WC and 67.8% by WHR. Here, mean BMI was
24.20±3.91 kg/m2
and mean WC was 85.55±10.53 cm with mean WHR of 0.90±0.06 cm.
Factors like age, marital status, parity, sleeping hours, eating pattern/vegetarianism, alcohol,
egg and fast foods were factors found significantly associated (p<0.05) with overweight and
obesity. Similarly, Age, marital status, education, occupation, family size, parity,
contraceptive and physical adequacy were associated (p<0.05) with abdominal obesity.
However, Factors like consumption of alcoholic drinks, egg and processed foods were only
significantly associated (p<0.05) with BMI. Factors like, occupation and physical adequacy
were only significantly associated (p<0.05) associated with WC. The study depicted the
prevalence of overweight and obesity among reproductive aged females residing in Itahari
sub-metropolitan city. Thus, overweight and obesity should be viewed as serious
problems/issue
Description:
A dissertation submitted to Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Central Campus of
Technology, Tribhuvan University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
Bachelors degree of Nutrition and Dietetics.
