Prevalence of Overweight And Its Contributing Factors Among Sedentary Workers

INTRODUCTION

Globally the prevalence of overweight is increasing at an alarming rate and is estimated 39.5% of adults (39% of men and 40% of women) were overweight. The worldwide prevalence of overweight nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016. Overweight is rapidly establishing itself as a public health problem in several developing countries with higher prevalence among sedentary workers. Increasing intake of foods high in energy and decreasing level of physical activity due to increasing urbanization, changing modes of transportation and sedentary working environments account for this energy imbalance.¹ Therefore, workers in such institutions become susceptible to developing obesity which could predispose them to chronic diseases associated with physical inactivity.

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of banking institutions, IT companies, and similar job oriented professional companies in Kerala. The nature of the job of the employee working there could contribute to the increasing prevalence of overweight in them. Health of employees must be protected, so they would continue to be productive to contribute to the growth of the country.

The investigator got many chances to come across with patients diagnosed with various morbid conditions associated with overweight. Overweight is an important catalyst for many complications and is acknowledged by NANDA International. It introduced overweight as a nursing diagnosis in their 2018- 2020 position statement. This adds additional responsibility for nurses to identify and define the risk groups as well as to analyze the risk prone behavior of overweight population. This is the beginning point of risk group followed interventions in controlling future morbidity and resultant mortality associated with the study of interest.

METHODS

The objectives of the study were to assess the prevalence of overweight among sedentary workers and to identify and rank the contributing factors of overweight. A case control design was adopted to identify the contributing factors for overweight. Whereas a survey among participants helped to identify the prevalence of overweight. 700 people between age group of 30-45 years of age and are employed in bank, IT Park and educational institutions were selected for the study. Among 700 subjects who were participated in the study there were 299 cases and 401 controls and their frequency based on their job is given below. Frequency distribution of cases and controls were depicted in Table-1.

The data collection was collected from 25th January to 24th February 2019.

RESULTS

Ranking of contributing factors

Based on the strength of odds ratio of selected variables with overweight, the ranking of contributing factors are given in Table-2.

DISCUSSION

The present study was conducted to assess the prevalence of overweight and its contributing factors among sedentary workers. Among 700 subjects participated in the study, majority of them falls under the age group of 30-35 years (58.9%). Almost half of the subjects were females (53.7%). The reason for this might be due the selection of settings and increased number of females working as teachers and IT professionals. Most of the subjects were married (76.7%).Half of the participants were residing in urban area (53.3%). Easy accessibility to work place might be the reason for high percentage of urban residence.

In the study 57.4% of subjects are following Christianity and 48.3% are graduates. Based on occupation of the subject 35.6% are teachers, 34.4% are IT professionals and 30% are bank employees. Among the total subjects 68.1% belongs to nuclear family and 88.1% consumed mixed food. Majority of the subjects were not involved in any weight reduction programmes (89.7%) Lack of time and unawareness regarding the consequence of overweight might be the reason for it.

The prevalence of overweight among selected sample was 425.⁷ per thousand populations with a male prevalence of 500 and female prevalence of 361. When comparing to global statistics (130)2 and national statistics (280)2 the study statistic is very high. The selection of an overweight prone population might be one of the reasons for the high prevalence of overweight among study population. This rationale is well supported by reporting high prevalence of bank employees of Ghana as 556 per thousand population.3 Gender wise affinity of overweight in this study is well supported by an Australian research4 but an Iranian study showed contradictory findings.⁵ In developed countries, men have higher rates of obesity; where as in developing countries women exhibit higher rates of obesity.

In this study the prevalence of overweight was found to be high among the age group of 36- 40 years (569 per 1000 population). An American study⁶ pointed out that overweight steadily increases with age and shows its peak between the age of 45-64 years. Sample characteristics, geographical difference and genetics might be some of the reasons for a different trend in this study. The high prevalence rate of over weight among males in this age group (985/thousand) might be a definite reason for this trend.

In current study urban employees had high prevalence of overweight (455/1000) when compared to rural residents (387/1000). Except teachers, rest two categories of employees were predominantly from urban residence. When examining prevalence of overweight based on occupation, bank employees (566/1000) and IT professionals (502/1000) were found to have over weight when compared to teachers; and this might be one of the reason for urban affinity towards over weight. General literatures stand along with the findings of the study in relation to urban – rural difference of overweight.

The variables tested in this study for association were gender, exercises, family stress, work stress, inadequate sleep problem, excessive sleep, excessive eating in stress, frequent eating outs, eating fast foods, eating junk foods, immediate sleep after eating, sweet carbonated drinks, frequent chocolate consumptions, frequent snacking, skipping breakfast, family history of overweight and child hood history of overweight. Those variables which rejected the null hypothesis is considered and ranked as contributing variables in this study.

The findings of this study revealed that family history (OR-1.741) and child hood history (OR.560) are contributing factors and has a significant association with overweight. An American study⁷ by World academy of science also support this findings.

In this study female gender is one of the contributing factor for overweight which has a supportive literature in developing countries and contradictory support from developed countries² . Even though the association of stress and over weight is well established in many studies8, present study shows a protective effect of work stress and family stress in relation to overweight. Since the intensity and nature of stress is not well explored in this study, it is difficult to explain the difference of opinion.

The researcher notified frequent snacking was one of the contributing factor for overweight. This findings were supported by a US study⁹. The findings of the present study revealed taking sweet carbonated drinks and frequent chocolate consumption has a non-significant effect whereas literature confirmed¹⁰ its association by a study conducted in US.

In this present study immediately going to bed after dinner and skipping breakfast has a protective effect on overweight .Literature^11,12 shows that these variables have a risk association with overweight which is a contributing factor to this study. Physiological reasons also oppose findings of this present study in relation to their variables. More investigation is needed on current data to reveal the reason for these but it was beyond the scope of objectives of this study.

Generally exercise is believed to be a protective factor for avoiding over weight; but current study shows no association between exercise and overweight. This point out the limitation of this study in identifying current exercise pattern of subjects in relation to their practice to reducing weight or preventing obesity. A study from Manipur¹³ also objects the findings of the study by stating exercise is a protective factor against overweight.

AUTHORS

1. Mrs Asha Joseph, 2nd year MSc Nursing, Holy Family college of Nursing, Thodupuzha, Kerala

2. Mr Jayan James, Professor, Holy Family college of Nursing, Thodupuzha, Kerala

3. Mrs Shaly Ulahannan, Asst Professor, Holy Family college of Nursing, Thodupuzha, Kerala