ABSTRACT

Overweight and obesity are public health problems all over the world because of their devastating health, economic and social consequences. In recent years, developing countries like Nigeria have been experiencing a nutritional transition in food choices from the typical starchy (mainly carbohydrate diets) to the fast food pattern and as a result of this, the dietary habits and lifestyle of young adults have being affected. Thus, overweight and obesity are increasingly being observed among young adults. This study assessed the prevalence of overweight and obesity amongst young adults in Coal Camp, Enugu State, Nigeria. A total of 325 young adults were randomly selected for this survey.  A validated questionnaire was used to collect information on the socio-economic characteristics of the subjects. Weight and height measurements were taken alongside waist circumference and hip circumference. Body mass index and waist/hip ratio were calculated. Overweight and obesity were defined according to WHO cut-off for BMI. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, cross tabulations and chi-squared tests. The percentage of females (53.5%) was slightly higher than that of the males (46.5%). All the respondents were between 18-21 (26.8%), 22-25 (42.5%) and 26-29 (30.8%) years of age. Occupational status of young adults revealed that majority of the respondents were students (63.4%), artisans (12.9%) and unemployed (11.4%). Results on lifestyle pattern of young adults showed that only a few (31.4%) of them regularly indulged in physical activity compared to the majority (68.6%) of the youths who either do not exercise regularly or do not exercise at all. Furthermore, regular pastries (48.3%) and poor fruit (76.8%) consumption was observed among most of the respondents. Prevalence of overweight and obesity based on body mass index status of respondents were 11.4% and 3.7%. More females(6.2%) and (3.1%) than males (5.2%) and (0.6%) were overweight and obese (p< 0.05). Most(72.9%) of the respondents had normal BMI while some (12.0%) of them were underweight. Results on waist/hip ratio of the respondents showed that majority (82.8%) of the young adults were normal, while only 17.2% were at an increased risk of obesity. The low prevalence of overweight and obesity in this study is encouraging though efforts needs to be made to encourage these and other young adults to strive for and maintain healthy weights as they grow into full adulthood.