Prevalence of overweight and obesity and associated factors among persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Authors

Samuel Semahgne Abrham, Mohammed Jemal, Baye Ashenef, Bitewlign Tiruneh, Matthias Kassie, Habtamu Belew, Ayenew Negesse

Published in

Obesity pillars. Volume 19. Pages 100313. Epub Aug 08, 2026.

Abstract

The prevalence and associated factors of overweight and obesity among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) were inconsistent in Ethiopia. Therefore, we aimed to pool the prevalence and associated factors of overweight and obesity among patients with T2DM using a systematic review and meta-analysis.
This was a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies reporting overweight and obesity among patients with T2DM in Ethiopia. PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, Google and Google Scholar, and Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched for relevant studies from January 2015 to December 2025. In addition, a manual search was conducted using published articles' reference lists. This review was conducted and reported in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) 2020 guideline. A narrative synthesis was provided by indicating the Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with its corresponding 95% Confidence Interval (CI) of individual studies. All analyses were performed using STATA Version 17 software.
A total of 52 studies met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 47 studies contributed to the meta-analysis of prevalence, while six studies contributed to the narrative synthesis of associated factors. The pooled prevalence of overweight, obesity, and both overweight and obesity were 33.8% (95% CI: 30.7-37.0), 17.1% (95% CI: 13.6-20.6) and 51.1% (95% CI: 45.9-56.3), respectively. A significant heterogeneity was found across the included studies. Study region explained part of the observed heterogeneity. A narrative synthesis identified fifteen significant factors associated with overweight and obesity among patients with type 2 diabetes in Ethiopia. These factors were grouped into three categories: socio-demographic factors (age, sex, place of residence, educational level, monthly income and family history of overweight/obesity); behavioral factors (physical activity/exercise, dietary practice, alcohol consumption, walking status, walking level and vigorous physical activity); and clinical factors (comorbid hypertension, duration of diabetes, central obesity and triglyceride level).
This study found that approximately half of patients with T2DM in Ethiopian studies were affected by overweight and obesity; there was a considerable difference across regions, with a higher prevalence observed in Addis Ababa. These findings highlight the importance of educating patients with T2DM on managing weight.

PMID:
42656766
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 13 Oct 2026.

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