Prevalence of obesity and awareness of diabetes mellitus and its relationship with obesity among undergraduate students of a private university in southern Nigeria

Introduction: Overweight, or obesity, is characterized by an abnormal or excessive buildup of fat and is a key risk factor for the majority of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). Overweight and obesity is prevalent among undergraduate students mainly due to unhealthy dietary practices. In addition, knowledge of obesity and its contribution to the onset of most NCDs is pertinent for design and implementation of health promotion and education programmes. This study examined the prevalence of obesity and awareness of diabetes mellitus and its relationship with obesity among undergraduate students in Novena University Ogume, Delta State Nigeria. Methodology: A cross-sectional study design was used in the research. A random sample of 282 undergraduate students was used in the study, which was conducted in 2019 at Novena University. The instruments for data collection were a semi-structured questionnaire, stadiometers, weighing scale, and measuring tape. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 23.0, was used to analyze the data that had been gathered. To look for relationships between the relevant variables at the P<0.05 level of significance, descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 26.91±6.57 years and majority (77.7%) was females. More females were overweight (28.3%) and obese (9.9%) and had waist-hip ratio (32.8%) higher than males. The respondents demonstrated good knowledge of the relationship between obesity and diabetes (50.5%). Predictors of knowledge on the relationship between obesity and diabetes were older age (Ρ=0.204, OR=2.111, 95% CI=0.667-6.682) and family history of obesity (P=0.006, OR=2.450, 95% CI=1.299-4.622) and diabetes (Ρ=0.000, OR=6.839, 95% CI=8.782-12.713). Conclusion: Findings of the study confirmed the prevalence of overweight and obesity among the study population. Therefore, implementation of weight reduction programmes will be essential. Received: 12 December 2023 Accepted: 20 February 2024 Published: 07 March 2024