Abstract
BackgroundThe growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NDC), particularly in low-and middle-income countries, poses a significant threat to global health. Obesity and overweight constitute major risk factors of NCDs such as heart diseases, diabetes, and kidney disease, and as a result, contribute significantly to the development of chronic morbidities, reduced quality of life, and increased risk of premature death. This study described evidence on the prevalence, incidence, and trends of childhood overweight and obesity in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA).MethodsWe conducted a systematic scoping review employing the Arksey and O’Malley framework, Levac et al. recommendations, and the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines. To obtain relevant published articles for this review, we performed a comprehensive keywords search in PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and CINAHL via EBSCOhost platform for studies published between 2009 and June 2019. Guided by the eligibility criteria, title and abstracts, as well as the full-text articles were independently screened in parallel by two investigators. All relevant data were independently extracted by two investigators using a piloted form designed in Microsoft and thematic analysis conducted.ResultsOf the 81 included studies obtained from 250,148 potentially eligible articles, the majority (25) conducted in South Africa followed by 18 in Nigeria. Six studies were conducted in Ethiopia (6), Tanzania (5), Kenya (4), Cameroon (4), Ghana (3), Uganda (2), Mozambique (2), and Sudan (2). One study each was conducted in Botswana, Gambia, Lesotho, Mauritius, Seychelles, Togo, and Zimbabwe. The remaining three articles were multi-country studies. Most (81.5%) of the included studies were cross-sectional surveys and the majority (79) focused on both male and female participants. The majority (80/81) of the included studies reported on the prevalence of childhood overweight/obesity, 8 on the trends of childhood overweight/obesity, and one presented evidence on the incidence of childhood overweight and obesity in SSA.ConclusionThis review demonstrates limited studies on childhood overweight/obesity in most SSA countries although the included studies suggest an increasing burden. Considering the consequences of childhood obesity, there is a need for more primary researches to inform policies decision and implementation to halt the rise of childhood obesity/overweight in SSA.
Highlights
The growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NDC), in low-and middle-income countries, poses a significant threat to global health
The Global Burden of Disease 2013 study report indicated that Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) were responsible for about 70% (38.3million) of the 54.9 million deaths worldwide of which about 80% occurred in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) [2, 4]
Of the 31 articles excluded at the full-text screening stage, 17 did not report any of this study’s outcomes of interest [3, 33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48], 7 were review studies [20, 49,50,51,52,53,54], 4 were published in French though their titles and abstracts were in English [55,56,57,58], 2 reported evidence outside this study’s population age range [59, 60], and 1 study was not conducted in of sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) [61]
Summary
The growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NDC), in low-and middle-income countries, poses a significant threat to global health. Obesity and overweight constitute major risk factors of NCDs such as heart diseases, diabetes, and kidney disease, and as a result, contribute significantly to the development of chronic morbidities, reduced quality of life, and increased risk of premature death. The Global Burden of Disease 2013 study report indicated that NCDs were responsible for about 70% (38.3million) of the 54.9 million deaths worldwide of which about 80% occurred in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) [2, 4]. Nutritional disorders such as obesity, overweight, underweight, and stunting in childhood and adolescence are associated with adverse health consequences throughout the life-span [5]. BMI percentiles for age and sex have been developed for diagnosing children older than 2 years of age [13, 14], where children with BMI above the 85th and 95th percentiles are classified as having a higher risk of overweight and obesity respectively [15, 16]
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