Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence of obesity in Dakar and in Tessekere, a rural municipality in northern Senegal, and to compare ideal body size between these populations.
A cross-sectional survey was carried out in on a representative sample of 1 adults, aged 20 years and older in Dakar, and adults of the same age in Tessekere. The prevalence of obesity and overweight was higher in Dakar than in Tessekere. However, overweight and obesity rates of young women living in this rural area were close to those of young women in Dakar.
At a body mass index of Keywords: Africa, biological anthropology, epidemiological transition, nutrition transition, overweight. Overweight and obesity are important risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Despite the threat posed by obesity in West Africa, there are very few studies addressing this issue in Senegal and none in the rural areas. To our knowledge, few studies have evaluated the prevalence of obesity among both men and women in Dakar, 11 the political and economic capital of the country. In terms of body mass index BMI , the prevalence of overweight and general obesity in was Various factors contribute to the high prevalence of obesity in SSA.
In the context of this comparative urbanβrural study in Senegal, a focus on urbanisation, sociodemographics and perception of body size is fundamental. It is now well established that urbanisation is a major driving force in obesity, by reducing physical activity and increasing consumption of energy-dense diets.
