The Burden of Overweight and its Risk Factors in Urban Nepalese School Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Adolescent’s overweight is rising in both developing and developed countries. Overweight and obese adolescents are more likely to become obese adults which stimulate the risk of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and so on. Adolescence is the critical period for development of unhealthy lifestyles and food choices which increases the risk of NCDs. The loss of productivity, premature deaths and disability has been associated with NCDs at younger ages. This study focuses on identifying the prevalence and associated risk factors with adolescents’ overweight. Methods: A school based cross-sectional study was conducted between August-October 2020 in Gokarneshwor municipality of Nepal. A random sample of 558 students aged 10-19 years from nine schools was included in the study. A self-administered questionnaire was filled out by the study participants. Anthropometric indices were measured and categorized using BMI for age Z-score. Descriptive statistics were carried out. Variables were considered for multivariable logistic regression if a Wald test p-value was ≤0.25 during bivariate logistic regression. The odds ratio with a 95% CI was calculated and a p-value of ≤0.05 was considered to declare the statistical significance of variables after fitting into the multivariable logistic regression. Results: The prevalence of overweight among school adolescents was 17.9% (95% CI 14.7 to 21.1). The female adolescents were more likely to get overweight as compared to male adolescents (AOR 1.53, 95% CI 0.97 to 2.39). Similarly, the adolescents staying with more than four family members were less likely to get overweight as compared to their counterparts (AOR 0.57, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.95). There was no statistical significant association between adolescent overweight and age group, family type, school type, mothers’ occupation or fruits consumption. Conclusion: The study findings highlighted the accelerated increase in the prevalence of overweight among school adolescents in Nepal. Therefore, appropriate nutritional intervention focusing on tackling overweight should be formulated and implemented so that the prevalence of overweight-associated non-communicable diseases can be minimized.