A large national survey analysis suggests obesity is now common among Bangladeshi adults and is far more prevalent among women than men, while the social drivers of excess weight may operate differently by sex.
Researchers analyzed 2022 data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, a nationally representative study, and defined obesity as body mass index of 25.0 or higher using Asian-specific cutoffs.
Overall, 30% of adults in the sample had obesity. Women were substantially more affected than men, with obesity prevalence of 36% versus 20%. After adjusting for other factors, women had 2.75 times the odds of obesity compared with men.
The study also found that the female-male gap narrowed in some higher-status groups. The difference was smaller among people with higher education, the richest wealth quintile and urban residents, based on interaction analyses in the researchers’ statistical models. Across both sexes, obesity was positively associated with age, education, wealth and urban residence, with several of those effects stronger in men.
In the paper’s summary of results, the authors wrote: “Obesity disproportionately affected women, although association with socio-demographic factors was stronger in men.” The researchers cautioned that key lifestyle measures were unavailable in the underlying survey, noting that dietary detail and physical activity data were not collected and waist circumference was not measured.