Abstract
Libya is following the trend observed in developing countries of steadily becoming more obese, such that obesity in Libya has reached epidemic proportions in the twenty-first century. The prevalence of obesity in Libya has more than doubled in the last three decades, with the numbers of overweight and obese adults being continuing to grow. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate and describe the prevalence of overweight and obesity among Libyan men and women. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to examine the prevalence of overweight and obesity among the Libyan population. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select 401 Libyan adults randomly from the Benghazi electoral register. Qualified nurses were allocated to take anthropometric measurements (including visceral fat and Body Mass Index (BMI)) from participants using the Segmental Body Composition Analyser and a portable Stadiometer. The response rate achieved in this cross-sectional study was 78%. Four hundred and one Libyan adult, aged 20-65 years, participated; 253 were female (63%). The prevalence of obesity, overweight, and normal weight among Libyan adults was 42.4%, 32.9%, and 24.7%, respectively. The results also revealed that approximately 75.3% of Libyan adults were overweight and obese, and the prevalence of overweight and obesity in women was significantly higher than that in men (the prevalence of overweight was 33.2% in women compared to 32.4% in men, while the prevalence of obesity was 47.4% in women compared to 33.8% in men, respectively). The findings of this study confirmed that obesity and overweight are the fastest growing issues and have become one of the most serious public health challenges confronting the Libyan authorities. As the obesity epidemic in Libya continues to escalate, with a complete absence of prevention interventions to reduce obesity, more research is desperately needed to follow the trend of gender difference in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among Libyans adults across the Libyan state to improve the effective interventions for preventing obesity.
Highlights
Obesity is a leading cause of various noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including life-threatening and nonfatal diseases; obesity leads to premature death and disability in adulthood [1,2,3]
It depicts the total numbers of ineligible participants 35 (7%); participants who opted out 24 (4.5 %); participants who were not approached 49 (10%); and those who did not complete questionnaires 3 (.5%)
The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD), coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) [27], estimated the prevalence of obesity and overweight in Libyan adults at 73.9% in 2013 (43.9% for obesity and 30.0 % for being overweight), whereas this study found that the prevalence of obesity and overweight is at 75.3% in 2016 (42.4% for obesity and 32.9% for being overweight)
Summary
Obesity is a leading cause of various noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including life-threatening and nonfatal diseases; obesity leads to premature death and disability in adulthood [1,2,3]. A large body of literature has shown that there is a paucity of studies about the prevalence of obesity in adults in Arab countries in the North African region, Libya [9, 10]. Since the discovery of oil in 1959, Libya has witnessed dramatic social, economic, and political transformations in the past five decades, including notable shifts in dietary and physical activity patterns [11]. It is likely that obesity has profound consequences for Libyan society as a whole [12]. It is important to understand more about the trends in the prevalence of obesity among Libyan adults because of the detrimental effects of obesity on the individual’s physical and mental health and on social and family life, life expectancy, and the financial burden it places on the state
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