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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1475116

Prevalence of overweight/obesity and its association with fast food consumption among adolescents in Southern Ethiopia, 2022: A community-based cross-sectional study

Provisionally accepted
Chernet Elias Geta Chernet Elias Geta 1*Awoke Ako Abraham Awoke Ako Abraham 2Chernet Maru Asrat Chernet Maru Asrat 3Tagese Yakob Barata Tagese Yakob Barata 4Daniel Debele Girma Daniel Debele Girma 5
  • 1 Department of human nutrition, Gambella region health office, Gambella, Ethiopia, Gambella, Ethiopia
  • 2 Department of human nutrition, Wolaita zone health office,, Sodo, Ethiopia
  • 3 Data Quality officers, Nifas silk Lafto Worda11,, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
  • 4 Division of Nutrition, Maternal and Child Health Unit, Wolaita Zone Health Department,, Wolaita Sodo, Ethiopia
  • 5 Department of Public health, Doctors with Africa,, Gambella, Ethiopia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Overweight and obesity are Body Mass Index (BMI) for ages Z-score>+1SD and >+2SD respectively. Despite its largest contribution to overweight/obesity, there is little attention in our country about fast food consumption. So, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of overweight/obesity and its association with fast food consumption among adolescents in Southern Ethiopia From 14 th June 2022 to 15 th July 2022, a cross-sectional study design was conducted using a structured questionnaire and anthropometric measurements, with a sample size of 563. The data was coded, cleaned, and imported into EPI-INF version 7.2 before being exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. All variables with p-values less than or equal to 0.25 in bivariate logistic regression were candidate variables for multivariable logistic regression. The response rate of this study was 97%. Based on BMI, the combined prevalence of overweight/obesity was 6.0% (95% CI: 4.2%-8.4%). Adolescents who are female, come from high-income families, and eat fast food frequently are more likely to be overweight or obese. Future health initiatives aimed at lowering the prevalence of overweight and obesity in adolescents should pay special attention to female adolescents and those from high-income families.

    Keywords: fast food, Overweight/obesity, Prevalence, Adolescent, Urban

    Received: 02 Aug 2024; Accepted: 09 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Geta, Abraham, Asrat, Barata and Girma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Chernet Elias Geta, Department of human nutrition, Gambella region health office, Gambella, Ethiopia, Gambella, Ethiopia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.