Dhaka: Nearly one in five married women in the country are obese or overweight, a new research from International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) has found.

The study showed that out of 16,493 women, about 18 percent was overweight or obese in the country.

The report said urban women not in full-time employment were at 1.44 times higher risk of being overweight or obese than urban women involved in manual work, a press release of ICDDR,B said today.

Women from wealthy and food-secure families were at higher risk of being overweight or obese in both rural and urban areas.

The study also identified a range of factors such as wealth index, educational status, hours spent behind television that contribute to excess weight, which could be targeted in interventions to reduce the prevalence of obesity in married women.

Haribondhu Sarma, head of ICDDR,B’s Nutrition Programme, along with colleagues from ICDDR,B and Stanford University, USA, analysed nutrition-related data from the 2011 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey to identify factors associated with being overweight or obese among women aged 18-49 years who were, or had been, married.

Tahmeed Ahmed Senior Director, Nutrition and Clinical Services Division at ICDDR,B and senior author of the study said, ‘These increased levels of obesity will have severe implications for the health budget of our country.’

‘Rates of obesity and overweight-related diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic kidney diseases and heart diseases are going to escalate if not tackled,’ he continued.

Public health interventions are clearly needed to reduce the prevalence of obesity among urban and rural women in Bangladesh.

The study stressed on creating awareness programmes in schools, workplaces and the community regarding the consequences of being overweight, promoting higher levels of physical activities and ensuring proper food policies including prevention activities.