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CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Volume 28, No 5, September/October 2017
AFRICA
327
who attended university. Gender was the primary risk factor for
central obesity (WC and WHR) in both environments (Table 4).
In Dakar, 50% of the study participants were satisfied with
their weight, 27% thought they were too thin and 23% too fat.
Men were more often satisfied with their weight than women
(57 vs 43%), who in turn more often thought themselves too
heavy (33 vs 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).
Table 3. Prevalence (%) of underweight, overweight, obesity and central obesity by age, gender and educational level in Dakar and Tessekere
Variable
n
Obesity based on BMI
Obesity based on WHR
Obesity based on WC
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)
Variables
Overweight/obesity Obesity based on WHR Obesity based on WC
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
Interme-
diate
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 circumfer-
ence, WHR: waist-hip ratio.