ISSN : 1997-1052 (Print)
2227-202X (Online)
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Integrating Overweight-obesity and Reproductive Factors of Married Women in Bangladesh
Mohammad Meshbahur Rahman, Zaki Farhana, Tania Akhter Tani, Mohammad Ohid Ullah
Abstract

Overweight or Obesity has become a burning question because it is associated with various health complications. It is increasing day by day all over the world. In Bangladesh, it is higher among women than men. Therefore, we aims to integrate the overweight-obesity factors with the reproductive factors among the married women in Bangladesh aged 15-49 years. To conduct this study we used a secondary cross-sectional data on a wide range of indicators relating to population, health, and nutrition from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS), 2014. In this study, we analysed married women’s nutrition-related data using logistic regression model and multi-factor analysis (MFA). The data included 17,863 married women of various ages. Of 17863 women, about 18.8% were overweight and 4.3% were obesity. Women of Khulna, Chittagong and Dhaka division had a higher risk of being overweight or obese compared to the women of Barisal division. The richest women were 6.233 times (95 % CI: 4.004-9.720, p < 0.001) more likely to be overweight or obese compared to poorest women. It was also found that, the prevalence of overweight or obesity was higher in urban (37.5%) women than rural women (19%). From multi-factor analysis we found in overweight-obesity factors- Wealth Index, TV watching and current occupation of women are positively associated with overweight or obesity. Integrating the factors of overweight-obesity with reproductive groups, we found -Wealth index, Current occupational status and TV Watching in overweight-obesity group are positively associated with Educational status and Breastfeeding of reproductive group. Taken together, we can conclude that a large number of married women were suffering from overweight-obesity problems. Therefore, special health related programs such as promoting higher level of physical activities, ensuring nutritional food policies and improving awareness through educational institutions should be provided substantially for reducing the prevalence of overweight or obesity of married women in Bangladesh.

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