Prevalence of Abdominal Obesity and Its Associated Factors Among Health Professionals in Felege Hiwot Comprehensive & Specialised Hospital, Bahir-dar, Ethiopia, 2021

Abstract Background Health professionals are considered as an epitome for the population by keeping their healthy life including not to be obese. Unfortunately, health care providers are a part of the social groups those are mostly affected by abdominal obesity which is a devastating public health problem. Purpose The purpose of this study is to estimate the magnitude of abdominal obesity and its associated factors among health professionals. Methods and Materials An institutional based cross sectional study was conducted. Simple random sampling technique was employed. Data was collected using Self-administered structured questionnaires. Abdominal obesity was measured by waist circumference measurement parameters with trained data collectors. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify determinants of abdominal obesity at a p-value of less than 0.05. The strength and direction of association was computed using adjusted odds ratio with 95%CI. Results The prevalence of abdominal obesity was 47.2% (95%CI:42.4%, 52.5%) among the overall health professionals. Being female (AOR = 10,95%CI:5.2,20), age group 35–54(AOR = 2.1,95%CI:2.6,19.2), consumed fruits < 2 times/day (AOR = 6.3, 95%CI: 3.15, 12.4), consumed sugar and sweets ≥ 2 times/week (AOR = 2.6,95%CI:1.3,5.4), consumed fats > 3 times/week(AOR = 2.4,95%CI:1.1,5.2), meals not prepared at home(AOR = 1.7,95%CI:0.8,3.3) and being physically inactive (AOR = 2.6(1.3 5.3) were significantly associated for the occurrence of abdominal obesity. Conclusions The magnitude of abdominal obesity in this study was high compared to other studies. Thus focusing on the risk factors of abdominal obesity could be a compulsory assignment to combat its impact among health professionals