Overweight and obesity trends and associated factors among reproductive women in Ethiopia

Figures & data

Figure 1. Flow chart for the selection of study participants.

Table 1. Background characteristics (weighted %) of non-pregnant and non-postpartum women of the Ethiopian demographic and health survey years 2005, 2011, and 2016 (N = 9046).

Variables	Survey year						Total
	2005 (n = 1541)		2011 (n = 4035)		2016 (n = 3470)		2005–2016 (N = 9046)
	Freq.	%	Freq.	%	Freq.	%	Freq.	%
Age category
15–24	284	19.80	732	18.09	537	15.66	1553	17.85
25–34	634	40.40	1694	42.23	1584	46.66	3912	43.10
35–49	623	39.80	1609	39.69	1349	37.68	3581	39.06
Educational status
No education	1098	74.63	2518	66.18	2055	62.93	5671	67.91
Primary	250	17.08	1085	26.90	954	27.54	2289	23.84
Secondary	162	7.19	258	3.79	292	6.29	712	5.76
Higher	31	1.11	174	3.13	169	3.24	374	2.49
Religion
Orthodox	774	49.38	1829	46.38	1411	44.12	4014	46.63
Catholic	16	1.24	40	0.97	20	0.73	76	0.98
Protestant	245	17.80	721	23.72	661	24.01	1627	21.84
Muslim	469	29.01	1378	26.96	1332	29.60	3179	28.52
Other	37	2.56	67	1.97	46	1.54	150	2.02
Contraceptive use
No method	1187	79.24	2631	63.87		56.97	3818	66.69
Folkloric method			1	0.03	2012	0.62	2013	0.22
Traditional method	26	0.90	66	1.13	33	42.41	125	14.81
Modern method	328	19.86	1337	34.98	1425		3090	18.28
Marital status
In a Union	1305	85.34	3398	85.80	3470	87.81	8173	86.32
Not in a Union	236	14.01	637	14.20		11.28	873	13.16
Women work status
No	1085	69.32	2461	60.24	2241	64.26	5787	64.61
Yes	456	30.68	1574	39.76	1229	35.74	3259	35.39
Wealth status
Poorest or poorer	595	38.81	1476	38.27		37.35	2071	38.14
Middle	195	13.40	598	19.43	3470	19.59	4263	17.47
Richer or richest	751	47.79	1961	42.29		43.05	2712	44.38
Read newspaper/magazine
No	1511	99.04	3878	97.27	3378	97.97	8767	98.09
Yes	30	0.96	157	2.73	92	2.03	279	1.91
Listen to radio
No	1279	85.83	3168	79.98	2938	85.71	7385	83.84
Yes	262	14.17	867	20.02	532	14.29	1661	16.16
Listen/watch TV
No	1394	94.94	3203	86.81	2764	87.24	7361	89.66
Yes	147	5.06	832	13.19	706	12.76	1685	10.34
Parity
No child	26	2.10	51	0.95	25	0.71	102	1.25
1 to 3 children	791	48.05	2214	51.88	1757	50.73	4762	50.22
4 and above children	724	49.86	1770	47.17	1688	48.57	4182	48.53
Partner’s education
No education	876	58.81	1857	48.38	1574	47.14	4307	51.44
Primary	362	26.10	1447	39.12	1147	37.26	2956	34.16
Secondary	243	12.38	423	6.60	416	9.19	1082	9.39
Higher	60	2.71	308	5.90	333	6.41	701	5.01
Region
Tigray	133	5.12	442	6.05	336	6.53	911	5.90
Afar	80	1.03	239	0.65	205	0.63	524	0.77
Amhara	299	28.14	635	27.87	502	26.39	1436	27.47
Oromia	301	35.54	605	36.39	491	34.80	1397	35.58
Somali	98	3.59	241	1.81	331	2.57	670	2.66
Ben-Gumz	89	0.88	355	1.04	297	0.97	741	0.96
SNNPR	288	20.91	633	21.29	563	22.56	1484	21.59
Gambela	28	0.30	137	0.26	112	0.27	277	0.28
Harari	20	0.26	174	0.17	102	0.22	296	0.22
Addis Ababa	162	3.74	370	4.19	307	4.53	839	4.15
Dire Dawa	43	0.49	204	0.29	224	0.54	471	0.44
Place of residence
Urban	370	14.42	1268	20.86	995	19.27	2633	18.18
Rural	1171	85.58	2767	79.14	2475	80.73	6413	81.82
Community-level education
Low	1106	78.30	2257	60.67	1847	57.23	5210	65.40
High	435	21.70	1778	39.33	1623	42.77	3836	34.60
Community-level wealth
Low	758	54.09	2123	63.21	1843	58.1	4724	58.45
High	783	45.91	1912	36.79	1627	42	4322	41.55

Figure 2. Location of Ethiopia (a) and Prevalence of overweight and obesity by region 2005(b), 2011(c), 2016(d) (Figure 2(a). A source: Britannica). OvOb: Overweight and Obesity.

Table 2. Trends in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among non-pregnant women aged 15–49 per region (weighted) in the years 2005, 2011, and 2016 (N = 9,046).

Characteristics	2005(%)	2011(%)	2016(%)	2011–2005 pp	2016–2011 pp	2016–2005 pp 95%CI
Region
Tigray	0.70	7.07	9.30	6.37	2.23	8.60 (8.31, 8.89)
Afar	6.96	5.94	15.03	−1.02	9.09	8.07 (7.49, 8.65)
Amhara	3.20	5.87	4.26	2.67	−1.61	1.06 (0.88, 1.24)
Oromia	6.67	7.29	10.76	0.62	3.47	4.09 (3.63, 4.55)
Somali	17.73	28.46	23.56	10.73	−4.90	5.83 (4.68, 6.98)
Ben-Gumz	2.78	3.76	7.64	0.98	3.88	4.86 (4.60, 5.12)
SNNPR	3.47	7.46	5.96	3.99	−1.50	2.49 (2.26, 2.72)
Gambela	4.82	18.81	13.34	13.99	−5.47	8.52 (8.04, 9.00)
Harari	15.79	28.68	31.02	12.89	2.34	15.23 (13.96, 16.50)
Addis Ababa	31.14	34.13	50.27	2.99	16.14	19.13 (16.88, 21.38)
Dire Dawa	22.06	40.24	34.19	18.18	−6.05	12.13 (10.58, 13.68)
Ethiopia	6.09	8.54	10.16	2.45	1.62	4.07 (3.65, 4.49)

SNNPR, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region.

Table 3. Multilevel mixed effect logistic regression analysis of individual- and regional-level factors associated with prevalence of overweight and obesity among reproductive age women in Ethiopia, 2005, 2011, and 2016.

Characteristics fixed effect	Null Model	Model I AOR (95% CI)		Model II AOR (95%CI)		Model III AOR (95%CI)
Age category
15-24 (ref)		1				1
25-34		2.91	(2.16, 3.93)***			2.38	(1.79, 3.18)***
35-49		4.59	(3.30, 6.40)***			3.62	(2.64, 4.97)***
Educational status
No education (ref)		1				1
Primary		1.40	(1.13, 1.74)**			1.11	(0.89, 1.38)
Secondary		2.25	(1.61, 3.15)***			1.64	(1.19, 2.26)**
Higher		1.41	(0.91, 2.18)			1.04	(0.69, 1.56)
Religion
Orthodox (ref)		1				1
Catholic		0.46	(0.17, 1.23)			0.46	(0.18, 1.17)
Protestant		0.80	(0.63, 1.03)			0.79	(0.62, 1.01)
Muslim		0.83	(0.66, 1.04)			0.83	(0.67, 1.04)
Traditional & other		1.72	(1.00, 2.95)*			3.95	(2.15, 7.25)***
Contraceptive use
No method (ref)		1				1
Traditional method		0.61	(0.31, 1.21)			0.68	(0.38, 1.21)
Modern method		1.08	(0.90, 1.29)			0.95	(0.80, 1.13)
Marital status
In a Union (ref)		1				1
Not in a Union		0.79	(0.58, 1.07)			0.80	(0.59, 1.07)
Women work status
No (ref)		1				1
Yes		1.02	(0.86, 1.21)			0.93	(0.79, 1.10)
Wealth status
Poorest or poorer (ref)		1				1
Middle		0.63	(0.44, 0.90)**			0.84	(0.57, 1.23)
Richer or richest		1.31	(1.10, 1.57)**			1.08	(0.81, 1.45)
Read newspaper/magazine
No (ref)		1				1
Yes		1.96	(1.35, 2.86)***			1.92	(1.36, 2.71)***
Listen radio
No (ref)		1				1
Yes		1.06	(0.87, 1.30)			1.07	(0.88, 1.29)
Listen/watch TV
No (ref)		1				1
Yes		3.17	(2.54, 3.97)***			1.79	(1.44, 2.23)***
Parity
No child (ref)		1				1
1 to 3 children		0	(0.18, 0.64)***			0.32	(0.17, 0.61)***
4 and above children		0.31	(0.16, 0.59)***			0.34	(0.18, 0.65)**
Partner’s education
No education (ref)		1				1
Primary		1.22	(0.98, 1.51)			1.04	(0.84, 1.29)
Secondary		1.90	(1.40, 2.58)***			1.37	(1.03, 1.84)*
Higher		3.07	(2.16, 4.36)***			2.09	(1.50, 2.92)***
Region
Tigray (ref)				1		1
Affar				245.82	(108.94, 554.67)***	0.90	(0.28, 2.89)
Amhara				0.96	(0.66, 1.39)	1.04	(0.71, 1.53)
Oromia				1.68	(1.18, 2.39)**	1.79	(1.23, 2.61)**
Somali				6.40	(4.02, 10.20)***	8.00	(4.80, 13.34)***
Ben-Gumz						0.21	(0.03, 1.24)
SNNPR				1.18	(0.81, 1.72)	1.34	(0.88, 2.03)
Gambela				190.95	(31.86, 1144.38)***	2.96	(0.84, 10.44)
Harari						3.10	(0.90, 10.67)
Addis Ababa				2.73	(1.86, 4.01)***	2.45	(1.63, 3.68)***
Dire Dawa				0.01	(0.00, 10.40)	2.86	(1.22, 6.68)*
Place of residence
Urban (ref)				1		1
Rural				0.22	(0.18, 0.28)***	0.36	(0.28, 0.46)***
Regional-level education
Low (ref)				1		1
High				1.61	(1.29, 2.02)***	1.41	(1.10, 1.80)**
Regional-level wealth
Low (ref)				1		1
High				1.74	(1.43, 2.12)***	1.61	(1.28, 2.02)***
Survey Year
2005 (ref)				1		1
2011				1.05	(0.83, 1.32)	1.13	(0.88, 1.45)
2016				1.30	(1.03, 1.64)*	1.33	(0.97, 1.82)
AIC	5210.17		4541.37		4554.35		4361.44
BIC	5224.39		4740.45		4675.22		4667.17
Log Likelihood	-2603.08		-2242.68		-2260.18		-2137.72
Num. obs.	9046		9046		9046		9046
Num. groups: V024	11		11		11		11
Var: V024 (Intercept)	1		0.34		0		0

AOR, Adjusted odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; SNNPR, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region. Significant codes: ‘***’ p<0.001, ‘**’ p<0.01, ‘*’ p<0.05, ref=reference category.