Nutrition and other lifestyle factors associated with obesity and hypertension among adolescents in the Wa Municipality of Ghana
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Date
OCTOBER, 2015
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Abstract
Obesity and hypertension are major risk factors for increased morbidity and mortality from noncommunicable
diseases. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Wa municipality of the
Upper West Region of Ghana. The main objective of the study was to establish nutrition and
other lifestyle factors associated with obesity and hypertension among 14-19 years adolescents.
A multi-stage cluster proportional to size sampling method was used to select 302 adolescents
from thirty schools (junior and senior high schools). Anthropometrics and blood pressure were
measured with recommended instruments. Dietary intake, physical activity levels and body
image preference were also assessed with the aid of questionnaire, to identify risk factors for
both obesity and hypertension. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20 and
World Health Organisation (WHO) anthroplus software were used for analysis. Pearson
correlations were done to find out association, while multiple and logistic regression were
employed to identify risk factors for obesity and hypertension. The study revealed obesity and
hypertension (both systolic and diastolic) prevalence of 1% and 4.0% respectively. Additionally,
10.1% of participants were overweight, 4.7% were underweight and 10.9% had elevated isolated
diastolic blood pressure, while 7.0% had elevated isolated systolic blood pressure. Family history
was positively associated (OR, 1.6, p, 0.014 95% CI) with obesity and overweight. The male
gender was protective against overweight and obesity (OR, 0.2, p= 0.000 95% CI), while meal
skipping was weakly associated with obesity or overweight (OR, 1.2, p=0.398). Waist
circumference (WC) emerged as the only independent predictor of SBP in a multiple regression
analysis. Binary logistic analysis showed that the male gender was an independent predictor of
systolic blood pressure with 4.0 times higher risks (95% CI: 1.2-10.0), in comparison to their
female counterparts. Ideal body image preferences chosen were generally good; 76.2% chose
normal nutritional status image. Physical activity level was relatively high among the studied adolescents and not significantly different between overweight and non-overweight adolescents
(p=0.334). Obesity prevalence was low, while hypertension was relatively high in the studied
population. Further research is warranted to ascertain the factors responsible for the prevalence
of hypertension.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology,
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Nutrition and Dietetics.