Prevalence and Contributing Factors for Overweight and Obesity in Children 0-18 Years in Sub Saharan Africa for 20-Year Period: Systematic Review

Abstract

Overweight and obesity among children in the sub Saharan Africa is emerging to be a public health concern in recent decades. The global occurrence of childhood overweight and obesity has increased remarkably during the past 20 years. The objective of this paper is to establish the trend of overweight and obesity for children under 18 years of age in the sub Saharan Africa. The study adopted systematic literature review over 20-year period from 1999 to October 2019. Results showed that childhood overweight and obesity has been increasing for the past 20-year period especially in the urban settings. It has been found that between the year 2010 and 2014 about 10.7 million children from 26 Sub Saharan African countries under the age of five are overweight or obese. The study also identified that obesity was more prevalent in urban than rural areas, particularly in women. If this situation is not remedied, sooner or later a large percentage of the African children could grow to be obese and this could be at a greater risk of mortality and morbidity among children due to these extreme body weight categories. It is therefore critical to address the factors that are associated with the higher prevalence of overweight and obesity among children in sub Saharan Africa to reduce the overall burden of overweight and obesity in the region.