Sociodemographic, socioeconomic, clinical and behavioural predictors of body mass index vary by sex in rural South African adults-findings from the AWI-Gen study.
Wagner RG., Crowther NJ., Gómez-Olivé FX., Kabudula C., Kahn K., Mhembere M., Myakayaka Z., Tollman S., Wade AN., as members of AWI-Gen and the H3Africa Consortium None.
BACKGROUND: Despite increasing obesity in South African adults, data on the prevalence and determinants of body mass index (BMI) from rural communities, home to a significant proportion of the population, are scarce. OBJECTIVES: To investigate overall and sex-specific determinants of BMI in a rural adult South African population undergoing rapid social and epidemiological transitions. METHODS: Baseline cross-sectional demographic, socioeconomic, anthropometric, clinical and behavioural data were collected between 2015 and 2016 from 1388 individuals aged 40-60 years and resident in the Agincourt sub-district of Mpumalanga province, a setting typical of rural northeast South Africa. A Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) underpins the sub-district and contributes to the Africa Wits-INDEPTH partnership for Genomic Studies (AWI-Gen). Linear regression was used to investigate univariate associations between log-transformed BMI and individual variables and multiple linear regression was used to investigate independent predictors of BMI overall and in sex-stratified analyses. RESULTS: Median BMI was significantly higher in females (28.7 kg/m2[95% CI 24.2-33.2] vs 23.0 kg/m2[95% CI 20.3-26.8];p