The prevalence of adult obesity in Africa: A meta-analysis

Adult obesity, a major risk factor for premature mortality from cardiovascular diseases and diabetes is on the rise in many African countries. This study sets out to investigate the incidence of adult obesity and its associated risk factors in Africa over a twenty-year period. (1992-2012). A literature search was performed using Pubmedcentral, google scholar and other sources. The quality of studies was assessed with the use of meta-analysis. For each study, a Mantel-Haenzel, adjusted relative risks with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were performed for possible confounding factors. Subsequently, a multivariate logistic regression analysis of the adjusted odds ratio was performed to identify the risk factors on the incidence and prevalence of obesity. Separate meta-analyses were performed on results from studies grouped with similar characteristics. Five research studies were selected and utilized for the meta-analysis. Quality of individual studies ranged from 0.51-0.78 (median, 0.62). Meta-analysis based on the prevalence of obesity gave pooled odds ratios 2.97 (95% CI; 2.35-3.68). In the multivariate logistic regression, gender, educational attainment and socio-economic status were found to be independent predictors for obesity. The findings suggests an apparently high obesity in African adults which requires urgent attention.