Maternal Factors Related to Childhood Obesity in Ghana: A Scoping Review

Childhood obesity has emerged as a significant public health issue globally, with one-quarter of obese children living in Africa. Maternal factors have been linked with childhood obesity, yet there is limited research in Ghana.

This scoping review examined maternal factors associated with childhood obesity in Ghana.

This review was conducted using the framework by Arksey and O'Malley. The strategy involved searching electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase) and reference lists of relevant literature. Additional searches were performed using Google Scholar. Keywords, including maternal factors, childhood obesity, and Ghana, with their synonyms and related Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms, were combined using Boolean operators. Peer-reviewed articles investigating maternal factors in relation to obesity in children in Ghana were included.

The scoping review included 11 studies conducted between 2012 and 2022 with 8101 children between 4 and 17 years old. The prevalence of childhood obesity was between 2.3% and 21.2%. Higher socioeconomic status was consistently associated with a higher risk of childhood obesity. Several studies also found a positive association between maternal education and childhood obesity. Other maternal factors, including BMI and empowerment, have been less frequently studied.

Contrary to results from the developed countries, Ghanaian children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds and with more educated mothers are more prone to obesity, highlighting the need to specifically target these families in obesity prevention and intervention strategies.