Socio-economic, environmental and demographic determinants of rise in obesity among Pakistani women: A Systematic Review

Nutrition transition is a shift in eating and disease patterns towards diet-nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (NR-NCDs). This shift in many developing countries has been accompanied with changes in behaviours, lifestyles, diets, physical inactivity, smoking and alcohol consumption. In addition to the burden of under-nutrition, nutrition transition has caused a sudden rise in overweight/obesity-related chronic diseases in developing countries. Little research has been done in Pakistan to explore nutrition transition, and its associated nutrition challenges. The current study attempted to investigate the socio-economic, environmental and demographic determinants of rise in obesity among women of reproductive years (15-49 years) in Pakistan. A review of related published literature for a period of 10 years (2005-2015) was carried out. Also, data from National Nutrition Survey (NNS-2011) and Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS 2012-13) was reviewed and used to supplement the published researches from Pakistan. For this purpose, a computer-based search was performed on PubMed and PubGet to retrieve relevant articles. The major socio-economic and environmental risk factors contributing to the risk of obesity among Pakistani women were sedentary lifestyle, lack of awareness, higher rates of urbanisation along with shift in dietary pattern from high-fibre diet to low-fibre, and high-calorie diet. The results of this review highlight the need for designing and implementing of national nutrition policy focussed on improving the awareness of determinants and consequences of nutrition-related illness in Pakistan.