Greater Accra has the highest number of overweight women

An estimated 45 percent of women in Greater Accra are overweight, according to a nutrition report.

Out of this 9 percent are considered extremely overweight or obese.

The regions with the least number of overweight women could be found in the Upper East Region with 13%, Northern Region with 14% and Upper East Region with 15%.

This was contained in a report released by Mrs Kate Quarshie, Head of Nutrition Department, Ghana Health Service, during the opening of a two day workshop for stakeholders in the agriculture and the health sectors.

She said children in Northern and Upper East regions were more likely to be underweight and stunted than children in other regions, ranging from 14% in Greater Accra to 37% in the Northern Region.

She cited lack of iodine as the main cause of preventable mental retardation and brain damage, adding that it could also cause complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

“It can also cause congenital brain damage and mental retardation in babies and make children less brilliant in school”, she said.

She said large goitres which also come about as a result of iodine deficiency makes their victims uncomfortable and unattractive and might reduce the person’s chances of marriage or employment.

She intimated that more than one in five children are permanently stunted with 7 in 10 children suffering from vitamin A deficiency.

“It is also estimated that 5 out of every 6 children under 5 are anaemic and also six in every 10 women between the ages of 15-49 years are anaemic”, she added.

Mrs Quarshie called on pregnant women to take good care of their health and avoid under-nutrition in order to avoid having difficulty at childbirth and also produce more breast milk with the required nutrients.

Dr Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, Deputy Minister of Agriculture in charge of Livestock, noted that although Ghana had recorded tremendous success with reducing hunger and undernourishment, it was still plagued with stunting growth levels of 23% and anaemia condition of 60%.

He called for the continuation of the small holder farming system as it was one of the best means of curbing malnutrition in families since it enabled families to grow all kinds of foods.

Dr Lamourdia Thiombiano, Food and Agriculture Organisation Representative to Ghana said Ghana had been recognised for the tremendous progress made to reduce hunger and under nutrition, from a prevalence rate of 40.5% in the early 1990s to less than 5% by 2012.

“At a special event held in at FAO headquarters in Rome, Ghana’s progress was celebrated with an award for notable and outstanding progress in fighting hunger” he said

He said the success feat was mainly attributed to increased agricultural growth and productivity which was estimated to have contributed to poverty reduction four times more than growth in the manufacturing or services sectors.

He said despite Ghana’s achievement in reducing hunger, it continued to have regional and socio-economic disparities in terms of poverty, hunger and malnutrition especially in the three northern regions.

“Survey trends in Ghana across a 20 year span show that the prevalence of chronic malnutrition reduced by only 6% from 1988 to 2008”, he said.