Obesity Among Nigerian Female Librarians

Abstract

This study investigated why female professional librarians tend to be obese/overweight, whether obesity has any adverse effects on the performance of their duties, and if it constitutes occupational hazard. Three hundred female professional librarians (selected from Cataloging, Information and Communication Technology [ICT], and Academic and Research Libraries [ARL] sections) who attended the 2011 Annual Conference/General Meeting of Nigerian Library Association were studied. A random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. The study revealed that female librarians are obese/overweight due to the nature of their jobs and that being overweight has negative effects on the performance of their jobs. It was therefore concluded that obesity is an occupational hazard. It is suggested that information on the importance of regular exercises be widely disseminated and that librarians should engage in daily regular exercises, and climbing of stairs in their offices, in order to reduce weight.

Keywords:

• exercises
• fat accumulation
• female librarians
• good living
• obesity
• weight gain