Department of Physiotherapy, College of Medical Sciences, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Nigeria.
Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2012 Mar 27;9:32. doi: 10.1186/1479-5868-9-32.
Understanding environmental factors related to obesity can inform interventions for the world wide obesity epidemic, yet no study has been conducted in this context in Africa. This study examined associations between neighbourhood environment variables and overweight in Nigerian adults.
A total of 1818 randomly selected residents (age: 20-65 years, 40% female, 31% overweight and 61.2% response) living in high and low socioeconomic (SES) neighbourhoods in Metropolitan Maiduguri, Nigeria, participated in a cross-sectional study. Anthropometric measurements of height and weight and an interview-assisted self-reported measure of 16 items of perceived neighborhood environments were conducted. The primary outcome was overweight (body mass index [BMI] > or = 25 kg/m(2)) vs. normal weight (BMI = 18.5-24.9 kg/m(2)).
After adjustment for sociodemographic variables, overweight was associated with distant access to commercial facilities (odds ratio [OR], 1.49; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02- 2.18), poor neighbourhood aesthetics (OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.16-2.09), perceiving garbage and offensive odours in the neighbourhood (OR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.05-1.89) and feeling unsafe from crime at night (OR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.13- 1.91) and unsafe from traffic (OR, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.17-2.07) in the total sample. Significant interactions regarding overweight were found between gender and four environmental variables, with low residential density (OR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.02-1.93) and poorly maintained pedestrian pathways (OR, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.13-3.17) associated with overweight in men only, and absence of beautiful things (OR, 2.23; 95% CI, 1.42-3.50) and high traffic making it unsafe to walk (OR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.49-3.83) associated with overweight in women only. There were few significant interactions between environmental factors and neighborhood SES regarding overweight.
Neighbourhood environment factors were associated with being overweight among Nigerian adults. These findings support previous reports in international literature, but should be replicated in other African studies before any firm conclusions can be drawn.
了解与肥胖相关的环境因素可以为全球肥胖流行提供干预措施，但在非洲还没有进行过这方面的研究。本研究旨在探讨尼日利亚成年人中社区环境变量与超重之间的关系。
在尼日利亚大都市迈杜古里的高、低收入社区中，共选取了 1818 名随机居民（年龄在 20-65 岁之间，40%为女性，31%超重，61.2%应答率）参与了一项横断面研究。对身高、体重进行了人体测量，并采用访谈辅助的自我报告方法对 16 项感知社区环境的项目进行了测量。主要结局为超重（体重指数[BMI]≥25kg/m²）与正常体重（BMI=18.5-24.9kg/m²）。
在调整了社会人口统计学变量后，超重与远距离到达商业设施（比值比[OR]，1.49；95%置信区间[CI]，1.02-2.18）、社区美感不佳（OR，1.58；95%CI，1.16-2.09）、感知到社区内有垃圾和难闻气味（OR，1.41；95%CI，1.05-1.89）以及夜间感到犯罪不安全（OR，1.47；95%CI，1.13-1.91）和交通不安全（OR，1.56；95%CI，1.17-2.07）有关。在总样本中，还发现了性别与四个环境变量之间存在显著的交互作用，与低居住密度（OR，1.39；95%CI，1.02-1.93）和维护不善的行人通道（OR，1.89；95%CI，1.13-3.17）与男性超重有关，而缺乏美丽事物（OR，2.23；95%CI，1.42-3.50）和高交通使步行不安全（OR，2.39；95%CI，1.49-3.83）则与女性超重有关。环境因素与社区社会经济地位之间的交互作用与超重有关的情况很少。
社区环境因素与尼日利亚成年人超重有关。这些发现支持了国际文献中的先前报告，但在得出任何确定的结论之前，还需要在其他非洲研究中进行复制。
