WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Shrijana Shiwakoti*, Tara Shah, Surya Raj Niraula, Angur Badhu and Shyam Lamsal

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Obesity is rapidly establishing itself as a public health problem. It leads to changes in disease structure which is evidenced by increasing non communicable disease related morbidities and mortality which can be observed in Nepalese young adults also. The objective of the study was to determine the factors associated with overweight or obesity among young adults of Dharan, Nepal. Methods: A community based case control study was conducted among 200 respondents (100 cases and 100 controls) on the basis of body mass index (BMI) in age group 21-39 years. Respondents having BMI 18.5 to 22.9 kg/m2 were categorized as control and BMI ?23 kg/m2 were categorized as case as per Asian criteria after gender matching. Odds ratio, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was done to examine association of different possible factors with overweight or obesity. Results: The average BMI and standard deviation (SD) among cases and controls were (27.32 ± 2.84) and (21.11 ± 1.28) respectively. Twelve possible risk factors were significantly associated with overweight or obesity in bivariate analysis. Final regression model suggests that age, occupation, frequency of snacks consumption, frequency of vegetable consumption and leisure time with no physical activity were the significant predictors of overweight or obesity after adjusting the effect of all possible risk factors. Conclusions: This study identifies some modifiable risk factors in context of Nepal. Awareness program including importance of physical activity on health should be organized to reduce the problem of overweight or obesity in the community.