{"id":93490,"date":"2015-07-18T00:05:48","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T22:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=93490"},"modified":"2015-07-18T07:33:20","modified_gmt":"2015-07-18T05:33:20","slug":"one-in-four-south-africans-are-obese-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/93490\/one-in-four-south-africans-are-obese-research\/","title":{"rendered":"One in four South Africans are obese: research"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Newspapers reported that 1-in-3 South Africans is obese. This, they said, makes the country the most obese in the region. But the 1-in-3 claim is based on outdated data and care must be taken with rankings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

South Africans\u2019 weight made headlines last month. \u201cSA is fattest nation in sub-Saharan Africa<\/a>,\u201d declared Business Day online. The Port Elizabeth Herald told readers: \u201cOne in three South Africans now deemed obese<\/a>\u201d. The Times\u2019 print edition went with the snappier \u201cSA pigs out in fat ranking<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The newspapers were quoting the CEO of South African medical aid company Profmed, Graham Anderson. According to Business Day\u00a0online<\/a>,\u00a0he said: \u201cOne in three South Africans are now deemed obese\u201a making the country\u2019s population the most obese nation in sub-Saharan Africa\u201d.<\/p>\n

Is this true? Do South Africans tip the scales as the heaviest nation in sub-Saharan Africa?<\/p>\n

A quarter \u2013 not a third \u2013 is obese<\/h3>\n

Profmed\u2019s public relations company, Epic Communications, sent us the press release<\/a> they issued on behalf of Anderson. It references and links to the World Health Organisation\u2019s (WHO) 2014 Global Status Report on Noncommunicable Diseases<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This report presents progress made around the world in preventing and controlling noncommunicable diseases, such as harmful use of alcohol and tobacco, high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity.<\/p>\n

However, the report doesn\u2019t show that 31.3% of South Africans are obese. This was the WHO\u2019s 2008 estimate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The WHO\u2019s \u201ccrude estimate<\/a>\u201d for the number of South Africans who were obese in 2014 is 25.6%. So-called \u201ccrude estimates\u201d are based on local studies and surveys, the team leader in the WHO\u2019s prevention of noncommunicable diseases department, Leanne Riley, told Africa Check.<\/p>\n

These included the South African National Income Dynamics Studies, South Africa\u2019s Demographic and Health Surveys and the WHO\u2019s study on global ageing and adult health. The aggregated data was then adjusted to be correct for the year of reporting and representative of the population.<\/p>\n

So is South Africa the \u2018fattest\u2019?<\/h3>\n

But countries\u2019 crude estimates should not be compared\u00a0because the age and sex breakdown of populations differ. Comparing the incidence of obesity in a country with a very young population against that in a country with an older population would be misleading, for example.<\/p>\n

To allow for better comparison, the crude obesity estimates<\/a> are weighted by the WHO to reflect the \u201cage and sex structure of most low and middle income countries\u201d. This removes any population differences that could skew comparisons.<\/p>\n

Their weighted estimate<\/a> suggests that 26.8% of South Africans were obese in 2014. This is the figure that should be used when comparing South Africa with other countries.<\/p>\n

With an average estimate of 26.8%, South Africa topped the WHO\u2019s rankings. It was followed by Seychelles, where 26.3% of the population are considered obese.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Country<\/th>\n% obese (with 95% confidence intervals)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
South Africa<\/td>\n26.8 [22.8-31.3]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Seychelles<\/td>\n26.3 [20.5-31.7]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Botswana<\/td>\n22.4 [17.3-27.5]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Namibia<\/td>\n18.9 [14.4-23.5]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mauritius<\/td>\n17.9 [12.9-22.5]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ranking not that straightforward<\/h3>\n

A senior researcher at Stellenbosch University\u2019s Centre for Evidence-based Health Care, Dr Celeste Naude, cautioned Africa Check that \u201cstatistical confidence intervals\u201d need to be taken into account when making comparisons between averages.<\/p>\n

The WHO\u2019s confidence interval for South Africa ranges between 22.8% and 31.3%. This means that while their best average estimate is that 26.8% of South Africans are obese, they are 95% sure that the figure falls somewhere between 22.8% and 31.3%.<\/p>\n

The WHO provides this range because sampling errors and the statistical model used can introduce uncertainty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The confidence intervals of the top four countries (South Africa, Seychelles, Botswana and Namibia) overlap.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that South Africa\u2019s confidence intervals overlap considerably with Seychelles in this WHO report means that it\u2019s highly likely that there is no difference between the estimates for the two countries and, strictly speaking, one cannot make the statement that SA is worse off than Seychelles,\u201d Naude said. The WHO\u2019s Riley confirmed this.<\/p>\n

Likewise, when comparing South Africa with Botswana and Namibia, it must be noted that their statistical confidence intervals overlap to varying degrees.<\/p>\n

Conclusion: 1-in-4 S. Africans obese, country tops average sub-Sahara African ranking<\/h3>\n

The report that appeared in newspapers was based on a press release. The WHO report this was based on estimated that roughly a quarter of South Africans were obese in 2014, not 1-in-3 as the press release claimed. That was the situation in 2008.<\/p>\n

While the situation today has improved, 1-in-4 is nevertheless a worrying statistic. According to the WHO<\/a> obese people are more likely to suffer from diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke and certain types of cancer.<\/p>\n

When it comes to declaring South Africa the \u201cfattest nation\u201d in sub-Saharan Africa, care must also be taken. While South Africa tops the average rankings, reporting should take into account uncertainty about the estimates. This qualification doesn\u2019t fit neatly in a news headline, but it is more accurate.<\/p>\n

Press releases issued on behalf of companies are frequently drafted entirely by public relations firms. When Profmed\u2019s PR company released comments they said were made by the medical aid\u2019s CEO, the claims weren\u2019t checked for accuracy.<\/p>\n

The key lesson? Always check the original source.<\/p>\n

Researched by Kate Wilkinson<\/em><\/p>\n

More on health<\/h3>\n

The world\u2019s biggest fast food chains in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The most fattening fast-food meals in SA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Starbucks is coming to South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to data from the Wolrd Health Organisation, 25% of South Africans are obese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":71354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[9731,10148,26,9401,7911],"class_list":["post-93490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-africa-check","tag-fat","tag-headline","tag-obesity","tag-who"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93490"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93544,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93490\/revisions\/93544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}