| dc.description.abstract | Background: According to the World Health Organization, obesity is one of today’s most manifestly visible, yet a deserted public health problem and it is declared worldwide that an estimate of 1.7billion are obese. The overweight prevalence rates are increasing progressively in Uganda especially in urban areas, comprising of 23.8% overweight and 17.8% obese of the entire
population Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of overweight/obesity and associated factors among clergy.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that was conducted in different church parishes in Kampala
diocese. The participants were 100 clergy, males (70) and females (30) aged 19–60 and above years, who were randomly selected using a convenient sampling technique. Measurements included weight, height, body mass index (BMI), screen time (television viewing), physical activity (determined using a validated questionnaire), and dietary habits (intake frequency).
Logistic regression was used to examine the associations between overweight/obesity and demographic, socio-economic and lifestyle factors.
Results: The mean body mass index of the respondents is 27.9Kg/m 2 with maximum of 46.2 Kg/m 2. This shows that majority of the respondents (clergy) in Kampala are overweight. The overall prevalence of obesity and overweight among the respondents in Kampala diocese is 28% and 41% respectively. The clergy that had physical activity exposure had 86% reduced risk of obesity (AOR: 0.24, p= 0.015).Clergy with higher level of income (>1,000,000/=) is found to
be 67% less likely (AOR 0.33, p = 0.010) to become obese as compared to those with low level of income (<1,000,000/=)
Conclusions: The present study identified the prevalence and several factors associated with obesity among the clergy and the prevalence is mostly due to the lack of physical activity undertaken by these members of the clergy since they find little time to take active exercise such as cycling, walking and they instead spend time sleeping or resting and, in some cases, watching television. | en_US |
