Abstract
(1) Background: This study aims to identify the factors of underweight and overweight/obesity among reproductive age (15-49 years) women in Myanmar, and assess the level of inequity in the double burden of malnutrition. (2) Methods: The study used Myanmar Demographic and Health Survey 2015-2016 data. Multinomial logistic regression models were fitted to identify the factors affecting underweight and overweight/obesity; and concentration indices (CI) were estimated to assess socioeconomic inequalities. (3) Results: A total of 12,643 reproductive age women were included in the analysis. Higher risk of underweight was found in women aged 20-29 years, aged 30-39 years, and 40-49 years compared to women aged 15-19 years; women who were unemployed or had manual occupation relative to those in non-manual employment. Women aged 40-49 years (compared to those who were 15-29 years); had primary education, and secondary education (compared to those who had no education); being married, and widowed/divorced/separated (compared to being never married); belonging to the poor quintile, middle quintile, richer, richest quintile (compared to the poorest quintile); having residence in urban areas (compared to rural areas) and in Kachin, Taninthayi, Yangon province (than those who lived in Naypytiaw province) had a higher risk of being overweight/obese. Socioeconomic inequalities were detected, with overweight/obesity strongly concentrated (CI: 0.19) amongst the higher quintiles and underweight concentrated (CI: -0.060) amongst the poorest. (4) Conclusions: Equity oriented nutrition interventions with a focus on improving the socioeconomic status of poor households may benefit undernourished women, while richer households should be focused to curb the overweight/obesity problem.
Highlights
Over the last four decades, underweight as well as overweight and obesity have become a leading public health problem globally [1,2] The world has witnessed approximately five-fold increased prevalence of overweight and obesity among adult women and an eight-fold increased prevalence among adult men between 1975 and 2016 [3]
The overall prevalence of underweight was 15%, while the prevalence of overweight was 39%, and the prevalence of normal weight was 46%
30.9% were 30–39 years old, 41.4% had primary education, 47.0% were involved in manual labor, 60.4% were married, 86.9% had media exposure, 22.0% belonged to richest wealth quintile, 71.2% resided in the rural areas, and 14.1% were from Yangon province
Summary
Over the last four decades, underweight as well as overweight and obesity have become a leading public health problem globally [1,2] The world has witnessed approximately five-fold increased prevalence of overweight and obesity among adult women and an eight-fold increased prevalence among adult men between 1975 and 2016 [3]. Within this time period, the highest rate was observed for the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asian region [3,4]. This co-existence of both undernutrition and over nutrition in the same setting is called a double burden of malnutrition [10]
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