ArticleBMJ open2017
Prevalence and time trends in overweight and obesity among urban women: an analysis of demographic and health surveys data from 24 African countries, 1991
Article in BMJ open, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 103 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
103 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 177 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bariatric Procedures in the Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of Patterns and Outcomes.Obesity surgery · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence, trends and distribution of lifestyle cancer risk factors in Uganda: a 20-year systematic review.BMC cancer · 2023Pooled it
- Prevalence, awareness and control of hypertension in Ghana: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2021Pooled it
- Effects of Social Media and Mobile Health Apps on Pregnancy Care: Meta-Analysis.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2019Pooled it
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- Socioeconomic inequalities in overweight and obesity among South Asian women, 2000-2022.Global health action · 2026Article
- Environmental and Individual Influences on Adolescent Diets in an Urban Informal Settlement in Kenya: Perspectives from Adolescents and Influential Adults.Current developments in nutrition · 2026Article
- Improving treatment outcomes in Ghana with agent-based model for diabetes patients' self-management behaviours.Health care management science · 2026Article
- Structural drivers of health inequality in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence and policy implications.Health policy OPEN · 2026Article
- Clinical Presentation and Management Outcomes of Pancreatic Cancer in African Countries: A Scoping Review.Journal of gastrointestinal cancer · 2026Article
- When undernutrition meets overweight: prevalence and determinants of double burden of malnutrition among women-child pairs in Burkina Faso from the 2021 Demographic and Health Survey.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Malnutrition among men in Ghana: socio-demographic factors and rural-urban differences.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2026Article
- An Examination of African Immigrants With Overweight or Obesity: Weight, Lifestyle Behaviors, and Body Image Following Immigration.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Prevalence, time trends and associated factors of adult overweight and obesity in 36 countries in the WHO African region from 2003 to 2022: a study of 54 WHO STEPS surveys representing 156 million adults.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Global Burden of Tuberculosis and Drug-Resistant Subtypes Among Women of Childbearing Age from 1990 to 2021, with Projections to 2030.International journal of women's health · 2026Article
- Bayesian Spatial Conditional Logistic Regression Modelling of Overweight/Obesity Prevalence and Determinants Among Women in Ghana, Accounting for Contraceptive Use.Global health, epidemiology and genomics · 2026Article
- Obesity in Tanzanian Youth (15-35 Years): From Nutrition Transition to Policy Action-A Scoping Review.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Prevalence and determinants of insulin resistance among middle-aged adults in rural northern Ghana: an Awi-Gen cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Prevalence and determinants of overweight and obesity among women of reproductive age in Rwanda: analysis of the 2019/2020 Demographic and Health Survey.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2025Article
43 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo examine the prevalence and trends in overweight and obesity among non-pregnant urban women in Africa over the past two and a half decades.
designCross-sectional surveys conducted between 1991 and 2014. SETTINGS: Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), repeated cross-sectional data collected in 24 African countries.
participantsAdult non-pregnant women aged 15-49 years. The earlier DHS collected anthropometric data on only those women who had children aged 0-5 years. The main analyses were limited to this subgroup. The participants were classified as overweight (25.0-29.9 kg/m
resultsThe prevalence of overweight and obesity among women increased in all the 24 countries. Trends were statistically significant in 17 of the 24 countries in the case of obesity and 13 of the 24 for overweight. In Ghana, overweight almost doubled (p=0.001) while obesity tripled (p=0.001) between 1993 and 2014. Egypt has the highest levels of overweight and obesity at 44% (95% CI 42%, 46.5%) and 39% (95% CI 36.6%, 41.8%), respectively, in 2014 and the trend showed significant increase (p=0.005) from 1995 levels. Also, obesity doubled in Kenya, Benin, Niger, Rwanda, Ivory Coast and Uganda, while tripled in Zambia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Malawi and Tanzania. Ethiopia and Madagascar had the lowest prevalence of both obesity and overweight, with overweight ranging from 7% to 12% and obesity from 1% to 4%.
conclusionsOverweight and obesity are increasing among women of reproductive age in urban Africa, with obesity among this age group having more than doubled or tripled in 12 of the 24 countries. There is an urgent need for deliberate policies and interventions to encourage active lifestyles and healthy eating behaviour to curb this trend in urban Africa.
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