Prevalence and Determinants of Overweight and Obesity in Adult Residents of Cape Coast, Ghana: A Hospital-Based Study (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION With the developed world grappling with a proportionately high burden of non-communicable diseases, developing countries are experiencing a double burden of non-communicable and communicable diseases [1]. Overweight and obesity, once associated with only high income countries are now also prevalent in low and middle income countries [2,3]. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 1998 declared obesity a global epidemic and called for a coordinated effort in the management and prevention of the condition [4]. Recent global figures indicate that up to 1.6 billion adults aged 15 years and above are overweight with the number of obese adults estimated at 400 million [5]. Obesity is a well recognized risk factor for a variety of chronic conditions including cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, dyslipidemia, stroke, type 2 diabetes mellitus, certain cancers and arthritis [6,7]. Higher grades of obesity are associated with excess mortality, primarily from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and certain cancers [6,8,9]. In developing countries, it has been suggested that over 115 million people suffer from obesity related health conditions [10,11,12].