Exploring The Relationship Between Dietary Patterns and Obesity Among Nigerian Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract Background/Objective: No previous study has investigated the association between dietary pattern and both general and abdominal obesity risk among adult in Nigeria. This study aimed to evaluate the associations between dietary patterns and the risk of obesity in the city of Iyin Ekiti, Southwestern Nigeria. Methods and Study Designs: A total of 1003 adults were included in this cross-sectional study (males = 558; females = 445). BMI and WHR were used to access general and abdominal obesity respectively and they were categorized using WHO recommendation. Partial correlation analyses were performed to assess the associations between dietary patterns an BMI and WHR. Prevalence ratio between dietary pattern and both general and abdominal obesity were calculated using Robust Poisson Regression. Results: The prevalence of general obesity among adults was 15.9%, (11.6% among men and 20.2% among women); abdominal obesity was 28.9% among males and 44.5% among females. Four dietary pattern was identified; diversified traditional pattern; typical traditional pattern; milk and bread pattern and egg and fish pattern. Diversified traditional pattern was negatively associated with BMI (PR = 0.571, 95%CI: 0.360~0.905, p = 0.017), and typical traditional pattern was positively associated with BMI (PR = 1.561, 95% CI: 1.043~2.339, p = 0.031) and WHR in females (PR = 1.849, 95% CI: 1.256~2.721, p = 0.005). In comparison to those in the lowest quartile, adults with the highest quartile of the typical traditional pattern had a higher risk for abdominal obesity (PR = 1.849, 95%CI = 1.256 ~ 2.721, p = 0.020). Conclusion: This study reports an alarming increase in Obesity prevalence among Nigeria adults which is greatly influence by their lifestyle and eating pattern. We found out that a typical traditional food pattern was associated with a higher risk of both general and abdominal obesity, but a diverse traditional food pattern was associated to a reduced risk of general obesity.