Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health · Nov 2026
Factors associated with obesity among men aged >18 years in Indonesia: A national population-based study
By Kalsum U, ‘Aisya N, Nugraha FI et al.
Obesity among adult men in Indonesia is increasing and has emerged as a significant public health problem. However, the factors associated with obesity at the population level have not been well explored. This study aimed to investigate the factors contributing to obesity among Indonesian men aged >18 years through a population-based study. Methods This research uses secondary research data. Data were extracted from the Survei Kesehatan Indonesia (SKI) 2023, a National survey, which included 261,157 men (>18 years). Obesity was defined as Body Mass Index (BMI) ≥ 25. Exclusion criteria were men with extreme BMI, outliers, and incomplete data. The data were analyzed using complex sampling methods, chi-square tests, and modified Poisson regression with a robust variance estimator. Results Overall obesity prevalence was 28.9%. Risk was higher among men aged ≥40 years (PR=1.21; 95% CI=1.19 1.24), those with higher education (PR=1.23; 95% CI=1.20-1.26), and urban residents (PR=1.15; 95% CI=1.12-1.18), rising progressively with socioeconomic status to PR=1.35 in the highest quintile. Relative to unemployed men, risk was highest among civil servants, military personnel, and police (PR=1.77), followed by self-employed men and private employees (PR=1.65 each). Frequent fatty (PR=1.05) and grilled/burned food consumption (PR=1.03) raised risk, while smoking (PR=0.84) and stress (PR=0.85) lowered it. Conclusion These findings suggest that individual, occupational, socioeconomic, and dietary factors jointly shape obesity risk among Indonesian men, with civil servants, private employees, and affluent urban men at greatest risk. Balanced dietary practices, occupation-targeted screening, and workplace health promotion are needed to prevent obesity in Indonesian men.