Nearly 70 per cent of women aged 15-49 years are overweight or obese, meaning they are too heavy for their height, says a survey conducted by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics, Health Ministry and UNICEF.
According to the Fiji Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2021, of the 70 per cent – 36 per cent were overweight and the remaining 64 per cent were obese or had excessive weight for their height.
The survey found that 24 per cent of women have normal weight for their height – with a body mass index (BMI) between 18.5 and 24.9.
The MICS found that nearly 5 per cent of women aged 15-49 years were thin for their height — with a BMI below 18.5, and a large proportion of women living in the richest households (eight per cent), compared with 2 per cent from the poorest households were thin for their height.