Obesity in Kenya: A Synthesis of the Literature

Abstract

Background The prevalence of obesity in Kenya has risen in the past decade and this is causing a worrying situation. Various factors have been suggested to cause this rise, namely; the environment, culture and poor health care system. This review aims at describing the factors that cause the increase in the prevalence of obesity, analyses the public health responses and provides recommendations. Several chronic diseases are associated with overweight and obesity, namely diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. In the past, obesity was only a problem in high income countries but is now dramatically on the rise in low-and middle-income counties, especially in urban settings [1]. Worldwide obesity has more than doubled since 1980. In 2008, 1.5 billion adults, 20 years and older, were overweight. Of these over 200 million men and nearly 300 million women were obese. 65% of the world's population live in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight. Nearly 43 million children under the age of five were overweight in 2010. Obesity is preventable [1]. Overweight and obesity are the fifth leading risk for global deaths. At least 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. In addition, 44% of the diabetes burden, 23% of the ischaemic heart disease burden and between 7% and 41% of certain cancer burdens are attributable to overweight and obesity [1]. Methods A desktop technique was used to ascertain the articles on obesity in Kenya by use of PubMed and hand-searching. A critical analysis was done to synthesis the articles obtained.