Browsing by Author "Kullah, Anthony Ngminkuma"

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    Nutrition and other lifestyle factors associated with obesity and hypertension among adolescents in the Wa Municipality of Ghana
    (OCTOBER, 2015) Kullah, Anthony Ngminkuma
    Obesity and hypertension are major risk factors for increased morbidity and mortality from noncommunicable diseases. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Wa municipality of the Upper West Region of Ghana. The main objective of the study was to establish nutrition and other lifestyle factors associated with obesity and hypertension among 14-19 years adolescents. A multi-stage cluster proportional to size sampling method was used to select 302 adolescents from thirty schools (junior and senior high schools). Anthropometrics and blood pressure were measured with recommended instruments. Dietary intake, physical activity levels and body image preference were also assessed with the aid of questionnaire, to identify risk factors for both obesity and hypertension. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20 and World Health Organisation (WHO) anthroplus software were used for analysis. Pearson correlations were done to find out association, while multiple and logistic regression were employed to identify risk factors for obesity and hypertension. The study revealed obesity and hypertension (both systolic and diastolic) prevalence of 1% and 4.0% respectively. Additionally, 10.1% of participants were overweight, 4.7% were underweight and 10.9% had elevated isolated diastolic blood pressure, while 7.0% had elevated isolated systolic blood pressure. Family history was positively associated (OR, 1.6, p, 0.014 95% CI) with obesity and overweight. The male gender was protective against overweight and obesity (OR, 0.2, p= 0.000 95% CI), while meal skipping was weakly associated with obesity or overweight (OR, 1.2, p=0.398). Waist circumference (WC) emerged as the only independent predictor of SBP in a multiple regression analysis. Binary logistic analysis showed that the male gender was an independent predictor of systolic blood pressure with 4.0 times higher risks (95% CI: 1.2-10.0), in comparison to their female counterparts. Ideal body image preferences chosen were generally good; 76.2% chose normal nutritional status image. Physical activity level was relatively high among the studied adolescents and not significantly different between overweight and non-overweight adolescents (p=0.334). Obesity prevalence was low, while hypertension was relatively high in the studied population. Further research is warranted to ascertain the factors responsible for the prevalence of hypertension.