Gender Difference in Obesity Prevalence Among General Population of Lahore, Pakistan

Obesity has become a pandemic problem and it is infamous for causing both physical and psychological disorders. Even though obesity is influenced by many factors which include fast food, menopause, socioeconomic status, and genetics, however, gender has paramount importance as a factor that affects obesity when we do not consider other factors. Thus, our current research study was aimed to evaluate the prevalence of obesity and influence of gender on it. Our current cross-sectional descriptive study was finished in almost 6 months from August 2020 to January 2021 among general population of Pak Aran Society Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. 183 people were recruited in study in accordance to set criteria of exclusion and inclusion. Only those people whose age was from above 20 years to below 61 years, and who had no physical or mental illness and were willing to participate were enrolled in study. Data collection was done through one self-structured proforma and WHO Classification of Weight Status established on BMI. SPSS version 25 was applied to perform data analysis. Various statistical tests like Chi-square test, Independent Sample t-test, and One-Way ANOVA test were used to evaluate the study variables and their relationship. Overall, our current study indicates high prevalence (19.10%) of obesity among all participants, nevertheless, mean of BMI value was higher among women (26.26 SD of ±3.70) as compared to men (25.06 with SD of ±4.27) which shows that women had higher risk of development of obesity than men. However, relationship between obesity and gender was statistically insignificant (p=0.262). The difference of BMI mean value between women and men was significant statistically (p=0.046). Significance difference was also observed in BMI mean value of across four grades of weight status (p=0.0001). In summary, in general, prevalence of obesity is higher among women than among men which means female gender raises the obesity incidence among women.