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SA JOURNAL OF DIABETES & VASCULAR DISEASE
RESEARCH ARTICLE
VOLUME 14 NUMBER 2 • DECEMBER 2017
77
13%;
p
< 0.001). In Tessekere, the majority found themselves too
thin (53%), 8% believed they were too fat, and 39% were satisfied
with their weight. Men were more often satisfied with their weight
than women (45 vs 34%;
p
< 0.01).
Fig. 2 shows that ideal BMI for men and women in Dakar was
found to be 23.5 kg/m². In Tessekere, ideal BMI for men was 25.5
kg/m². For women in this rural area, the tendency was not as clear,
but the ideal BMI for rural women could nevertheless be situated in
the overweight category. We should note that at a BMI of 27.5 kg/
m², only 42% of the men in Dakar felt too fat, as opposed to 49%
of the women. In Tessekere, for the same BMI, 41% of the men felt
too heavy as opposed to only 30% of the women.
In Tessekere, 10 people were unable to judge ideal body size
by the BSS. Analyses concerning this scale were therefore done
on 486 participants in the rural area and 984 in the urban area
(Fig. 3). First, we observed that for both male and female scales,
averages of IBS for oneself and the opposite sex were lower in urban
Senegalese than in rural Senegalese. The ideal male and female
bodies fell within the normal range in Dakar, and in the overweight
category in Tessekere. Second, there were no significant differences
between men and women from each environment on each scale,
except for the female scale in Dakar; urban women perceived the
ideal female body size as heavier than their male counterparts (
t
=
5.45;
p
< 0.001).
Discussion
This study is to our knowledge the first to evaluate the prevalence
of obesity among both men and women in urban and rural Senegal.
Table 3.
Prevalence (%) of underweight, overweight, obesity and central obesity by age, gender and educational level in Dakar and Tessekere
Obesity based on BMI
Obesity based on WHR
Obesity based on WC
Variable
n
Underweight Overweight
Obese
p
-value
Obese
p
-value
Obese
p
-value
Dakar
Age (years)
20–29
413
18.6
12.8
3.6
< 0.001
26.2
< 0.001
12.6
< 0.001
30–39
266
11.3
22.6
9.8
37.6
25.9
40–49
156
5.1
20.5
16.7
54.5
37.2
≥ 50
149
6
29.5
18.8
67.1
51.7
Gender
Male
494
15.4
14
2.8
< 0.001
16.8
< 0.001
4.3
< 0.001
Female
490
9.8
24.5
16.5
63.3
48
Educational level
Illiterate
208
8.7
21.6
12
< 0.01
51.9
< 0.001
32.2
< 0.001
Primary
348
10.9
21.6
10.3
40.8
29.9
Intermediate
197
13.2
20.8
10.2
35
25.4
Secondary
91
19.8
15.4
9.9
41.8
25.3
University
140
17.1
10
3.6
25.7
8.6
Tessekere
Age (years)
20–29
200
33
9.5
0
< 0.01
14
< 0.001
4.5
< 0.001
30–39
115
30.4
17.4
1.7
20
9.6
40–49
77
27.3
11.7
6.5
28.6
23.4
≥ 50
104
24
17.3
6.7
42.3
20.2
Gender
Male
241
34.4
8.7
0.8
< 0.001
7.1
< 0.001
1.2
< 0.001
Female
255
25.1
17.6
4.7
39.2
22
Educational level
None
373
30.6
12.9
2.9
NS
26.5
< 0.01
13.1
NS
1 year and +
123
26.8
14.6
2.4
14.6
8.1
BMI: body mass index, WC: waist circumference, WHR: waist-hip ratio.
Table 4.
Adjusted odds ratio (OR) for overweight/obesity and central
obesity in Dakar (
n
= 984) and Tessekere (
n
= 496)
Overweight/
Obesity based
Obesity based
obesity
on WHR
on WC
Variable
OR 95
% CI
OR 95
% CI
OR
95
% CI
Dakar
Age (20–29)
30–39 2.39*** 1.62–3.52 1.96** 1.32–2.92 2.89*** 1.82–4.60
40–49 3.17*** 2.03–4.95 5.34*** 3.29–8.66 7.47*** 4.24–13.18
≥ 50
5.38*** 3.42–8.45 12.40*** 7.35–20.93 29.51*** 14.79–58.90
Gender (men)
Women 3.85*** 2.81–5.29 13.24*** 9.21–19.05 49.33*** 26.74–91.01
Educational level (university)
None 1.47
0.80–2.72 1.23
0.70–2.18 1.43
0.65–3.16
Primary 1.85* 1.05–3.26 1.1
10.65–1.85 2.58*
1.24–5.40
Intermediate
1.96* 1.07–3.58 0.94
0.53–1.66 2.58*
1.17–5.68
Secondary 1.59
0.77–3.25 1.59
0.81–3.12 2.91*
1.17–7.21
Tessekere
Age (20–29)
30–39
2.35* 1.19–4.65 1.55
0.81–2.96 2.29
0.89–5.89
40–49
2.49* 1.13–5.46 2.53** 1.25–5.13 8.74*** 3.34–22.83
≥ 50
3.89*** 1.93–7.86 6.03*** 3.13–11.60 7.67*** 3.02–19.45
Gender (men)
Women 2.93*** 1.71–5.02 10.08*** 5.59–18.18 27.16*** 8.15–90.55
Educational level (1 year or +)
None 0.57
0.31–1.05 1.07
0.57–2.00 0.56
0.23–1.34
*
p
< 0.05; **
p
< 0.01; ***
p
< 0.001. BMI: body mass index, WC: waist cir-
cumference, WHR: waist-hip ratio.