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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Socio-economic determinants of obesity of Namibian women in the reproductive age group: a binary logistic regression model |
Authors: | Pazvakawambwa, Lilian Tjipueja, Werner |
Year: | 2013 |
Periodical: | Journal for Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (ISSN 2026-7215) |
Volume: | 2 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 81-93 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Namibia |
Subject: | women's health |
Abstract: | Obesity leads to reduced life expectancy and increases the likelihood of a wide range of diseases. Obesity also lowers the self-esteem and has negative consequences on the cognitive and social development of a person. World-wide, obesity is a leading yet preventable cause of death. This cross sectional study examined the obesity status of women in the reproductive age group (age 15-49) in Namibia and identified socio-economic factors associated with obesity, by fitting a binary logistic regression model to a stratified multistage cluster sample of 9804 women's data from the Namibia National Health and Demographic Survey (NDHS) of 2006-2007. The independent variables, chosen on the basis of literature review and availability of data in the NDHS, included the total number of children born to the woman, the age of the woman at first birth, her place of residence, the woman's current occupation, current age of the woman, her highest level of education, her partner's educational level, the women's economic status, contraceptive use, smoking habits and religion. Several factors that bear a relationship to obesity wer identified. The authors recommend that policy and intervention programs to reduce obesity focus, amongst others, on encouraging women to delay child-bearing. Smoking was inversely related to obesity, nevertheless, women should be encouraged to stop smoking because of its other devastating health effects. [ASC Leiden abstract] |