Lifestyle and social factors associated with obesity among the Bahraini adult population

A cross-sectional survey on 514 Bahraini natives aged 30-79 years was carri ed out to study the lifestyle and social factors associated with obesity. B ody mass index, BMI (weight, kg/high, m(2)) was used to determine obesity a mong the study population. Obesity was considered when the subject had BMI equal to or greater than 25. The overall prevalence of obesity was 56% in m en and 79.6% in women. Age, sex, education, smoking and history of diabetes and hypertension, watching television and frequency of fruit intake had a significant association with obesity. When a multiple logistic regression w as used to estimate the risk of occurrence of obesity, it was found that th e risk of obesity is greater in subjects who were females, educated, curren tly married, watching television daily, non-smokers, consuming fresh fruit more than three times a week and having a history of diabetes and hypertens ion. Lifestyle, dietary habits and social factors should be considered, the refore, in any health programme to prevent and control obesity in this comm unity.