Obesity and hypertension among market men and women in the Tamale metropolis

Obesity and hypertension are emerging problems in the Tamale metropolis in the northern region of Ghana. This study investigated the prevalence of obesity and hypertension among market men and women in the Tamale Metropolis. This is from a viewpoint of the market place, being an occupational environment that predisposes individual to obesity, mainly due to sedentary living and enhanced access to all sorts of food. A total of 220 market men and women were contacted. 15 individuals refused to take part in the study and 5 returned incomplete questionnaires, leaving 200 complete and evaluable respondents comprising 100 men and 100 women. The study population was selected randomly from four major markets (Lamashegu market, Aboabo market, Tamale central market and Kukuo market) in the city. Obesity was measured using the various anthropometric parameters (BMI, WHR, WC and %BF) and blood pressure was measured. The prevalence of hypertension was 3% while the prevalence of obesity was 25.0%, 35.5%, 30.0% and 52.5% using BMI, WHR, WC and %BF respectively among the entire study population. Among the men, 27.0%, 8.0%, 8.0% and 37.0% were obese using BMI, WHR, WC and %BF respectively; whilst the women recorded 23.0%, 63.0%, 52.0% and 68.0% as the prevalence of obesity using BMI, WHR, WC and %BF respectively. Among the men, 5.0% were hypertensive while 1.0% of women had hypertension. Prevalence of obesity and blood pressure values increased with increase in age. The prevalence of obesity is a common phenomenon among the market men and women in the metropolis. Irrespective of the criteria used, obesity is more common among the market women. The prevalence of obesity from this study is age dependent; it also depends on educational level as well as marital status. The prevalence of hypertension on the other hand is low and it is common among the men as compared to the women and also increased with age. Education on hypertension and obesity should be prioritized among the market men and women as a greater proportion of our study pop-ulation who were obese were found to be illiterates. Journal of Medical and Biomedical Sciences (2015) 4(3), 9-17 Keywords: Cardiovascular disease, sedentary lifestyle, occupation, adiposity