Background: Africa is facing a nutritional transition where underweight and overweight coexist. Although the\nmajority of programs for orphan and vulnerable children (OVC) focus on undernourishment, the association between\nOVC primary caregiving and the caregiversââ?¬â?¢ overweight status remains unclear. We investigated the association\nbetween OVC primary caregiving status with womenââ?¬â?¢s overweight status in Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia.\nMethods: Demographic Health Survey (DHS) cross-sectional data collected during 2006ââ?¬â??2007 were analyzed using\nweighted marginal means and logistic regressions. We analyzed data from 20ââ?¬â??49 year old women in Namibia\n(N 6638), Swaziland (N 2875), and Zambia (N 4497.)\nResults: The overweight prevalence of the primary caregivers of OVC ranged from 27.0 % (Namibia) to 61.3 %\n(Swaziland). In Namibia, OVC primary caregivers were just as likely or even less likely to be overweight than other\nprimary caregivers. In Swaziland and Zambia, OVC primary caregivers were just as likely or more likely to be overweight\nthan other primary caregivers. In Swaziland and Zambia, OVC primary caregivers were more likely to be overweight\nthan non-primary caregivers living with OVC (Swaziland AOR = 1.56, Zambia AOR = 2.62) and non-primary caregivers\nnot living with OVC (Swaziland AOR = 1.92, Zambia AOR = 1.94). Namibian OVC caregivers were less likely to be\noverweight than non-caregivers not living with an OVC only in certain age groups (21ââ?¬â??29 and 41ââ?¬â??49 years old).\nConclusions: African public health systems/OVC programs may face an overweight epidemic alongside existing\nHIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria epidemics. Future studies/interventions to curb overweight should consider OVC\ncaregiving status and address country-level differences
Loading....