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Marriage, alcohol and birth control drugs are the cause of obesity among Kenyan women. A US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report published on Thursday and covering 15,317 women has shown that one in three women is either overweight or obese.
Overweight and obesity were found to be more prevalent on married women or those living with a partner.
Obesity was found to be lowest in women who have never been in a union.
While more than a third of women in a marriage or union were obese, only 18 per cent of never married had a weight problem. While in the past birth control drugs have been linked to weight gain in women, this is the first time such claims are published.
Women who use a hormonal contraception either as a pill, intrauterine device, injection, or implant, the report says, are more likely to be overweight or obese than those not using any other method. “Additionally, when an already obese woman started using these contraceptives she gained more weight than her non-obese counterparts when they similarly initiated contraception,” says the study.
Forty one per cent of women using hormonal contraceptives were obese compared to 39 per cent of those using other methods and 25 per cent using no birth control drug.
The research, using data from the current Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, found slightly higher levels of obesity among women who consume alcohol compared to their counterparts who do not.
A 2016 market report by the global research firm Euromonitor International said the industry strategy for sweetened alcoholic flavours, beautifully packaged and targeted at the modern woman, have been a huge success in Kenya.
“These women now represent a majority of females found in bars and restaurants at any given time,” says Euromonitor.
By region, the highest number of overweight and obese women is in Nairobi at almost 48 per cent, followed by Central at 47 per cent, and Coast at 32 per cent.
Urban women and those living in affluent residential areas were more obese than females living anywhere else in Kenya.
(Additional information from www.rocketscience.co.ke)
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