World Obesity Day: University of Ibadan Launches Campus Obesity Network

The University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, through the University Health Service (UHS), has commemorated the World Obesity Day 2024, and also launched the Campus Obesity Network.

During the commemoration, the school disseminated the findings of a study on, “Temporal Trends in Overweight, Obesity and Chronic Disease Risks among Adolescent and Young Adults: A ten year review of pre-admission and medical records of undergraduate and postgraduate students in UI”.

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The Deputy Vice-Chancellor Administration, Professor Peter Olapegba, who represented the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kayode Adebowale, at the event, called on all stakeholders to examine the cultural traits that predispose people to obesity, charging all to take personal responsibility for their health and called for necessary changes in lifestyles to tackle the challenges of obesity.

Professor Olapegba reiterated the commitment of the University management to workplace wellness, saying the University would adopt obesity as an institutional issue and put up the right policy framework aimed at the sustenance of a healthy university community.

He reminded the stakeholders about the recent move by the University, through the UHS, to regulate food vendors on campus to ensure healthy feeding, stating that any food vendor on campus that does not display a certificate of fitness from the UHS is operating illegally and should be reported.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor thereafter launched the Campus Obesity Network as a high-level mandate to coordinate collective action on the prevention and control of obesity and associated chronic or non-communicable disease risks in the University of Ibadan.

Earlier, the Oyo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, urged the investigators to think more on how to involve adolescents from primary and secondary schools and work more on disseminating relevant information to them.

She stressed that prevention is usually better than cure and urged everyone to live a healthy life by constantly checking their blood pressure, blood sugar and maintaining a healthy weight.

Dr Ajetunmobi recommended an acronym “WASHED” to sensitise the public on obesity, saying “W- Weight Reduction, A-Alcohol Reduction, S- Smoking cessation/Salt Reduction, H- Health Promotion, E- Exercise and D- Diet control”

She gave the assurance that the Ministry of Health was ready to collaborate with the University of Ibadan to fight the menace of Obesity.

The Director of the University Health Service (UHS), Dr Aderonke Ajav, charged all members of the University community to be intentional in their efforts to live healthy lives.

The Director of the African Research Universities Alliance Centre of Excellence for Non-Communicable Diseases, Professor M.O. Owolabi, in a goodwill message, stated that obesity and hypertension have become epidemic driven by people’s lifestyles.

He said many deaths that occur from obesity and hypertension are preventable or controllable by water, diet, and exercises, urging people to be more active and to live healthy lives.