UI Commemorates World Obesity Day 2024

Lawal Maruf

University Health Service, University of Ibadan commemorated the 2024 World Obesity Day on Thursday, March 6, 2024. This year’s commemoration was dedicated to disseminate the findings of a study on “Temporal Trends in Overweight, Obesity, and Chronic Disease Risks Among Adolescents and Young Adults: A Ten Year Review of Pre-admission and Medical Records of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students in UI”.

Representing the Vice Chancellor, Professor Kayode O. Adebowale, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Peter Olamakinde Olapegba, encouraged all stakeholders to examine the cultural traits that cause obesity. He charged them to take personal responsibility for their health and called for necessary changes in lifestyles to tackle the challenges of obesity.

As a part of the university’s plan to improve the healthy environment, Professor Olapegba recalled the recent decision of the university, through the UHS, to regulate food vendors on campus to ensure healthy feeding.

He stated that “any food vendor on Campus that does not display a certificate of fitness from the UHS is operating illegally and should be reported.”

Also, he launched the Campus Obesity Network as a high level mandate to coordinate collective action on the prevention of obesity and other chronic or non-communicable disease risks in UI.

The Director of UHS, Dr Aderonke Ajav, urged all members of the university community to be intentional in their efforts to live healthy lives.

In his goodwill message, the Director of the African Research Universities Alliance Centre of Excellence for Non-Communicable Diseases, Professor M.O. Owolabi stated that obesity and hypertension have become an epidemic due to our lifestyles.

“Many deaths that occur from obesity and hypertension are preventable or controllable by water, diet, and exercises,” he said.