Abstract:

Overweight and obesity are risk factors of non-communicable diseases, which were considered a problem in high income countries, and currently dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, Namibia is not an exception. The study aimed to determine the prevalence of overweight/obesity among patients attending a private clinic in Windhoek, Namibia.

Methods: Cross-sectional study including 73 patients was conducted at one private clinic-Windhoek, in 2015. The Body Mass Index (BMI) was used to determine patients overweight and obesity as per World Health Organization (WHO) classification.

Results: Prevalence of overweight/obesity was 61.60% (n=73). In logistic regression analysis, odd ratio (OR) of patients not exercising were almost 5 times more likely to be overweight/obese (OR: 4.75, 95% CI (1.056-21.373)) compared to those who exercise optimally. The association between those that do not exercise optimally with being overweight/obese was statistically significant (p-value: 0.03) compared to those exercising optimally. Patients < 30 years had almost twice the chance of overweight/obesity compared to those who are ≥50 years (OR: 1.959, 95% CI (0.604-6.352)). The chance of becoming overweight/obese increases by about 7 times from 30 to 39 years, and 2 times from 40-49 years as compared to those who are ≥ 50 years (OR: 7.429, 95% CI (1.424-38.777)) and (OR:2.286, 95% CI (0.48-10.883)) respectively.

Conclusions: Three quarters of patients attending one private clinic in Windhoek do not exercise. Higher proportion of one private clinic patients-Windhoek are overweight/obese and are more likely to be 30-39 and females.

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