Relationship between obesity and type of occupation among the civilservants of Male’ Maldives

Abstract

Background: According to WHO, more than 1 in 3 adults globally were overweight and more than 1 in 10 were obese in 2014. Obesity and overweight are risk factors for cardiovascular diseases among many other diseases. Obesity and overweight has been noted as two of the most prevalent risk factors for NCDs in the Maldives. It has been established that sedentary lifestyles affects weight and waist circumference of people. Hence, the purpose of this study was to find the relationship between obesity and type of occupation among civil servants of Male’ Maldives. Method: This was a descriptive cross sectional study among two hundred and seventeen administrative officers, one hundred and one teachers and fifty one nurses from the civil servants of Male’. The dietary and physically active habitat at work and home were measured with the help of a self-administered questionnaire. Obesity (based on body mass index) and fat deposits (based on waist circumference (WC)) were defined using WHO criteria. Result: The results show that there was no significant relationship between obesity and occupations and neither with most of the explanatory variables selected for this study. Only 9 participants have more than 80 cm of waist circumference. And 5 participants have more than 30 units of BMI among the 92 participants. This study however, highlighted risk factors such as high carb diet, smoking, disease conditions and lack of exercise that could lead to obesity among civil servants and a slightly significant association between obesity and physical activity. Implications: Due to the small sample size, this study could not identify a relationship between the type of occupation and obesity. But notable number of participants had a waist circumference between 76-80cm, hence it is recommended to raise awareness especially for people working in deskbound jobs. Findings from this study points to the importance of designing work environments to avoid physical inactivity. High risk working populations and larger samples covering more categories of civil service employment beyond the civil service needs to be targeted in further studies. Future research needs to target.