Prevalence and Associated Factors of Abdominal Obesity Among the Adult Population in Woldia Town, Northeast Ethiopia, 2020: Community-based Cross-sectional Study

Background: The prevalence of abdominal obesity has been dramatically increasing both in developed and developing countries, including Ethiopia. It is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, type-2 diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, and cancer. However, there is inadequate data regarding the prevalence and associated factors of abdominal obesity among adult population in Ethiopia.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the prevalence and associated factors of abdominal obesity among the adult population in Woldia town, Northeast Ethiopia in 2020.

Method: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Woldia town from March 20 to April 20, 2020. Data on socio-demographic, dietary history, and anthropometric characteristics were collected from 802 adults using the World Health Organization stepwise technique. Multi-stage sampling was employed to select the study subjects. Data were cleaned, coded, and entered by EPI-info Version 7 and were exported to SPSS Version 20 for further analysis. To indicate the strength of association, odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were used.

Result: From a total of 823 respondents 802 were involved with a response rate of 97.4%. The overall prevalence of central obesity based on waist to hip ratio was 16.5% with 95% CI (14.2-19.2). Female sex [AOR = 13.3, 95% CI: 7.01-25.39), high wealth rank (AOR = 2.95, 95% CI: 1.21-7.17), single marital status (AOR = 0.16, 95%CI: 0.04-0.58), age from 35 to 55 years (AOR = 4.3, 95% CI: 2.22-7.99), age greater than 55 years (AOR = 3.8, 95%CI: 1.36-10.78), secondary educational level (AOR = 1.83, 95% CI: 1.05-3.18), eat more protein (AOR = 4.22, 95% CI: 1.26-14.22), and consumption of snacks (AOR = 2.78, 95% CI: 1.68-4.61) were significantly associated with abdominal obesity.

Conclusion: The prevalence of abdominal obesity among adults in Woldia town is high, and has become an emerging nutrition-related problem. Being female, older age, being in a high wealth rank, consuming more meat, having secondary education level, and consuming snacks were the risk factors of abdominal obesity. Nutrition interventions should target adults mainly focusing on the alarmingly increase in nutrition problems, such as abdominal obesity, in Ethiopia with specific attention to females.