KENFIN-EDURA: Explaining non-communicable disease-related behaviour in the context of urbanization, family and wealth

Background The prevalence of non-communicable diseases is increasing in
lower-middle-income countries as these countries transition to unhealthy
lifestyles. The transition is mostly predominant in urban areas. We
assessed the association between wealth and obesity in two sub-counties in
Nairobi City County, Kenya, in the context of family and poverty. Results
A total of 149 households, response rate of 93%, participated, 72 from
Embakasi and 77 from Langata. Most of the participants residing in
Embakasi belonged to the lower income and education groups whereas
participants residing in Langata belonged to the higher income and
education groups. About 30% of the pre-adolescent participants in Langata
were with at least overweight, whereas the respective number in Embakasi
was only 6% (p<0.001). In contrast, the prevalence of adults
(mostly mothers) with overweight and obesity was high (65%) and similar in
the two study areas. Wealth (b = 0.01; SE 0.0; p=0.003) and income (b =
0.29; SE 0.11; p=0.009) predicted higher BMI z-score in pre-adolescents.
Conclusions In Nairobi, pre-adolescent overweight was already highly
prevalent in the middle-income area, while the proportion of women with
overweight/obesity was high also in the low-income area. These results
suggest that a lifestyle promoting obesity is prevalent even in lower
income areas  in urban Kenya, and this is a strong justification
for promoting healthy lifestyles across all socio-economic classes.