Prevalence, inequality and associated factors of overweight/obesity among Bangladeshi adolescents aged 15-19 years

Md Sabbir Ahmed; Safayet Khan; Mansura Islam; Md Irteja Islam; Md Musharraf Hossain; Bayezid Khan; Fakir Md Yunus

doi:10.1093/inthealth/ihae012

Prevalence, inequality and associated factors of overweight/obesity among Bangladeshi adolescents aged 15-19 years

Int Health. 2024 Feb 2:ihae012. doi: 10.1093/inthealth/ihae012. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Md Sabbir Ahmed^{1

2}, Safayet Khan^{3

4}, Mansura Islam⁵, Md Irteja Islam^{6

7

8}, Md Musharraf Hossain⁹, Bayezid Khan¹⁰, Fakir Md Yunus¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, The University of Saskatchewan, 107 Wiggins Road, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E5, Canada.
² Department of Development Studies, Daffodil International University, Savar, Dhaka 1216, Bangladesh.
³ BRAC Institute of Educational Development, BRAC University, House 113/A, Road 2, Niketan, Gulshan-1, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh.
⁴ School of Educational Studies and Leadership, Faculty of Education, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand.
⁵ School of General Education, BRAC University, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh.
⁶ Faculty of Medicine and Health, School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
⁷ Centre for Health Research, The University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia.
⁸ Research, Innovation and Grants, Spreeha Bangladesh Foundation, Mohammadpur, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh.
⁹ Resident Medical Officer (RMO), Upazila Health Complex, Bakshiganj, Jamalpur 2124, Bangladesh.
¹⁰ Development Studies Discipline, Social Science School, Khulna University, Khulna 9208, Bangladesh.
¹¹ Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Nova Scotia, Canada.

PMID: 38306121
DOI: 10.1093/inthealth/ihae012

Abstract

Background: The objective of the current study was to estimate the prevalence and associated factors of overweight/obesity among Bangladeshi adolescents aged 15-19 y and to identify whether wealth-related inequality exists for overweight/obesity among Bangladeshi older adolescents.

Methods: We analyzed publicly available national representative secondary data from the 2019-2020 Bangladesh Adolescent Health and Wellbeing Survey. This cross-sectional survey was carried out among 18 249 adolescents aged 15-19 y regardless of their marital status using a two-stage stratified sampling technique (the data of 9128 eligible adolescents were included in this analysis). The WHO reference population for body mass index-for-age (1+Z score) was considered as overweight/obesity.

Results: We found that girls had significantly (p<0.05) higher prevalence of overweight/obesity (11.63%) than boys (8.25%); however, their biological sex as well their age were not significantly associated with higher odds of overweight/obesity. Those who were in their higher grade (grade 11 and higher) in the school and had been exposed to media were more likely (1.67 and 1.39 times, respectively) to be overweight/obesity compared with primary grade (0-5) and those who experienced no media exposure, respectively. Inequality analysis revealed that adolescents belonging to wealthy households had significantly higher rates of overweight/obesity than those in poorer households (concentration index=0.093).

Conclusions: The study exhibited the multifaceted nature of overweight/obesity among Bangladeshi older teenagers, revealing that their school grade, exposure to media content and wealth-related inequality emerged as significant contributing factors. The findings underscore the urgent need for targeted interventions and public health strategies to address the escalating burden of overweight and obesity in this age group.

Keywords: BMI; South Asia; inequality; nutrition; school.