Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Overweight/obesity is increasing at an alarming rate throughout the world and has now become a global epidemic. According to a recent research report, the burden of obesity is increasing in developing countries; however, no significant reduction has been seen in developed countries over the past few decades. Furthermore, there is limited information about overweight/obesity. The main objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of overweight/obesity among reproductive age women. METHODS: A total of 866 reproductive women participated in the study. The collected data were coded and entered into Epi-Data version 4.6.0 and exported to STATA version 17 software packages for analysis. Binary logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with overweight/obesity among reproductive age women. Variables with a p-value < 0.2 in the bivariate analysis was further fitted into multivariate analysis for controlling the possible effect of confounders, and finally the variables that were a p-value of < 0.05 on the bases of odd ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was considered significantly associated with overweight/obesity and identified based on odds ratio (OR), with 95% confidence interval (CI) and p-value (p < 0.05). RESULT: The study's response rate was 96% and the overall prevalence of overweight/obesity was 21% [95% CI: 18.00, 24.00]. Being parity [AOR = 3.75, 95% CI: 2.06, 6.81], parity (≥ 2) [AOR = 8.16, 95% CI: 4.63, 14.37], late age at menarche (≥ 14 years) [AOR = 1.65, 95% CI: 1.13, 2.41], and ever used family planning [AOR = 1.50, 95% CI: 1.01, 2.23] were factors significantly associated overweight/obesity. CONCLUSION: In this study, overweight/obesity was high. Late age of menarche, parity, and ever using family planning were factors affecting overweight/obesity in reproductive age women. Healthcare workers should raise awareness among reproductive-age women about the impacts of overweight/obesity.