Investigating the Factors Affecting Overweight/Obese amidst Non-pregnant Women in Bangladesh: A Multi-level Analysis of Demographic and Health Survey

The primary goal of this study was to investigate the severity of being overweight/obese among non-pregnant women and its trend for change over the last 10 years in Bangladesh. This research featured 16,398 female participants and used the chi-Squared test to investigate the association between different socioeconomic variables and dependent variables. We applied the average annual rate of increase (AARI) to determine the trends of selected variables over the last decade. Next, we applied a multilevel logistic regression model to determine specific trigger factors at the individual and community levels; for this, we used the 2017–2018 data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS). Individually, women between the ages of 40 and 44 years (odds ratio [OR] 5.68; 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 4.68–6.89) with better education (OR 1.55; 95% CI 1.34–1.80) and from the wealthiest households (OR 3.65; 95% CI 3.17–4.20) had a higher risk for being overweight or obese. On the other hand, working women (OR 0.80; 95% CI 0.75–0.87) had a lower risk of becoming overweight or obese. Respondents from affluent communities had a higher probability of being overweight or obese (OR 1.93; 95% CI 1.72–2.18) whereas women in rural areas were less likely (OR 0.63; 95% CI 0.57–0.69) to be overweight or obese. The efforts of both individuals and communities are expected to raise awareness among wealthy and educated women.