Gender difference in body mass index in West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea: A sub-analysis of a cross-sectional questionnaire study.

Globally, more women are likely to be obese than men, and the need for a gender-specific strategy concerning related health issues is important. Our study aimed to clarify gender difference related to obesity in Papua New Guinea by a sub-analysis of our previous questionnaire-based cross-sectional study. We used demographic and anthropometric data (body mass index) from a convenient sample of 558 community-dwelling healthy people (mean age 34.8 14.0 years, 48.2% women). To clarify gender differences, we conducted an unpaired t-test and Chi-square test between males and females. Obesity was twice as common in females than males (20.5% vs. 10.4%) and over half of the women had abnormal body mass index (51.3% vs. 39.1%) compared to their male counterparts.