Prevalence and Contributing Factors of Overweight and Obesity Among Office Public Servants in Case of Bahir Dar City Administration Public Sectors, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Obesity is a well-recognized risk factor for various chronic health problems. Civil servants are exposed to the sedentary lifestyle, and some of these jobs are characterized by sitting for a long period of time. Therefore, civil servants become susceptible to developing overweight/obesity, but little was researched on behalf of office civil servants. Method: Institution based cross-sectional study using Simple random sampling method was used to select 365 office civil servants working in Bahir Dar city, Northwest Ethiopia in 2020. The data was collected by using semi-structured self-administered questionnaire. The data were entered in to Epi-data and analyzed on SPSS. Result: The prevalence of overweight or obesity was 30.83% among office public servants in case of Bahir Dar city. Obesity or overweight is associated with more than three times meal per day [AOR=4.34, 95% CI [2.22–8.33], regular physical exercise or intensive activity at work place or at home [AOR= 3.84, 95% CI 1.37–11.11], recline or by sitting within a day (sedentary behavior) [AOR= 10 95% CI 4.16–50.00]. Conclusion and Recommendation: The prevalence of overweight or obesity was high among office civil servant workers in Bahir Dar city. Burden of overweight or obesity in this area is associated with time spent by sitting per day, meal consumption frequency, lunch consumption frequency and high intensity regular physical exercise which deserves sector wise integrated occupational health program in the work place to decrease identified risk factors of overweight or obesity.