Ethiopian Community Attitude Towards the O-Words (Overweight and Obesity); As A Symbol Of Wealth, Health, Beauty, Comfort, Honesty, Dignity, Respect And Confidence Which Should Be A Turning Point For Their Detrimental Effects | Biomed Grid

Body mass index (BMI) is a simple index of weight-for-height that is commonly used to classify overweight and obesity. It is defined as a person's weight in kilograms divided by the square of his/her height in meters (kg/m2). The WHO definition for a BMI greater than or equal to 25 is overweight and a BMI greater than or equal to 30 is obesity. BMI provides the most useful population-level measure of overweight and obesity as it is the same for both sexes and for all ages of adults [1]. The populations residing in the horn of Africa (Ethiopians and Eritreans) were known by famine and drought among the world with low mean body mass index of 15.5 (14.4-16.6) for males; 16.8 (15.6-17.9) for females and 16.8 (15.1-18.6) for males; 17.5 (15.9-19.3) for females respectively [2]. The possible opinions/ justifications for low BMI were not only absence of foods to ingest but also other social, cultural, religious, economic and demographic bases. Majority of the Ethiopian community were Christians and Muslims who are practicing regular fasting guidelines. Culturally the community doesn't follow regular feeding habits rather give priority for activities. Majority of Ethiopians especially living in rural part of the country eat only twice daily (morning and night). Due to infrastructural limits in the country at large, all most all of the community engaged in strenuous activity forcefully in their daily activity and covering more kilometres on bare foot. This all together results imbalance between energy intake and energy lost physiologically. So, in general due to those reasons it is unlikely to become overweight. Thus, the community gives value to overweight as it is strange and odd among them.