Adiposity and Quality of Life: A Case Study from an Urban Center in Nigeria
Abstract
Objective
To determine relationship between adiposity indices and quality of life (QOL) of residents of a housing estate in Lagos, Nigeria.
Design
Cross-sectional survey employing multistep random sampling method.
Setting
Urban residential estate.
Participants
This study involved 900 randomly selected residents of Abesan Housing Estate, Lagos, Nigeria.
Main Outcome Measures
Body mass index (BMI); waist circumference (WC); waist-to-hip ratio (WHR); triceps skin-fold thickness (TSFT); and abdominal skin-fold thickness (ASFT) were measured using International Standard of Anthropometric Assessment methods. QOL was assessed using Short Form-20.
Analysis
Data were analyzed using the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis.
Result
The mean age of participants was 37.7 ± 14.3 years, with a range of 20 to 80 years. The mean values of adiposity indices were 24.1 ± 4.3 kg/m2 (BMI), 11.5 ± 5.3 mm (TSFT), 18.5 ± 6.2 mm (ASFT), 81.8 ± 11.2 cm (WC), and 0.89 ± 0.1 (WHR). Although the overall mean QOL score was 72.02 ± 11.9, women had significantly (P < .05) lower scores (70.1 ± 5.2) than men (73.5 ± 11.3). There was inverse correlation between QOL and each of the age and adiposity indices.
Conclusion and Implications
Quality of life of the urban-dweller Nigerians decreased with increasing body adiposity and age. This finding suggests the need to further educate the Nigerian public on the association between high body fat and poor health.
1Department of Physiotherapy, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
2Department of Physiotherapy, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria
3Department of Physiotherapy (Health Promotion), Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria
Address for correspondence: A. O. Akinpelu, Department of Physiotherapy, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria; Phone: 234-805-523-1646; Fax: 234-2-241-1768
ABSTRACT