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Obesity is a major global problem affecting populations around the world, including Surinamese women. Suriname is an upper-middle-income, culturally Caribbean country located at South America's northeast. The country population is consists of multiple ethnic groups. The major ones are Amerindian, Creole, Maroon, Indian, Indonesian, Asian, and African people. Regardless of ethnicity, Surinamese women are more at risk of being obese than their Surinamese men. The major causes of obesity in Surinamese women are marriage, parity, parenting, poor health literacy and lack of physical exercise.

Marriage
Married Surinamese women are more likely to be obese than their unmarried counterparts because of a strong association between marriage and body mass index. The association is significantly evident among young adults living together as husband and wife or in other couple arrangements, who research indicates are likelier to be obese than the rest of the demographic. There have been attempts to explain the link between obesity and marriage in Suriname. One explanation is that Surinamese women living with men as couples are more likely to be happy and be less worried about life, preventing stress-based weight loss or regulation. Another explanation is that married people earn more money as a household compared to people living singly and enjoy more luxury, which contributes to a sedentary lifestyle that also involves overeating. The women are not overweight throughout their marriage. Rather, the relationships shift to the negative side with time. The shift commonly happens when the women reach about 48 years old, at which the propensity to become overweight starts to decline. Marriage increases obesity rates in Surinamese women only when they are happily married.

Parity
Parity is another important factor in obesity among Surinamese women. The term is defined as the number of times a woman has born a fetus of a gestational age of 24 weeks, whether a live birth or stillbirth. The contribution of parity to obesity applies to women in general, not just Surinamese women. Women tend to become overweight as a result of gestational weight gain and the retention of postpartum weight. In Suriname, there is a link between parity and place of residence. Suriname women living in urban areas are more like to become overweight because of parity than women living elsewhere in the country, even when other covariates are adjusted. The link between parity and obesity is also dependent on ethnicity. For example, Surinamese women of African heritage are more likely to become obese than Surinamese women of Asian decent. Parity is a risk factor for obesity and depends on both ethnicity and place of residence.

Parenting
Yet another contributing factor to obesity and being overweight among Surinamese women is parenting. Young Suriname women are likely to be obese because of bringing up children. For them, caring and family responsibilities compete with physical activity. The level of parenting-related obesity depends on the ages of the children. Surinamese women with younger children tend to be less physically active than those with older children because younger children need more care. The physical activity difference is reflected in obesity levels, whereby Surinamese women with younger children exhibit higher levels of obesity compared to those with older children. Parenting reduces physical activity, which in turn increases the risk of become obese.

Low Health Literacy
Surinamese women may also obese because of poor health literacy levels the Suriname. A REALM-D test taken by Surinamese participants revealed a score of 49. REALM is a test that stands for Rapid Estimates for Adult Literacy in Medicine and Dentistry, in which a score of 59 or less indicates low health literacy while a score of 60 or higher indicates good health literacy. Most of Suriname people's score in the test is less than 59. Only 5% of those tested scored more than 60. The low health literacy limits the accessibility of health education to Surinamese women, leaving them vulnerable to being overweight, obese, and related health complications. The women do not have adequate information on measures against obesity.

Physical Activity
Lastly, physical activity is usually mentioned as one of the ways to lower or control obesity, but it does not necessarily apply to all Surinamese women. Generally, physical activity during commutes and leisure reduces obesity levels in populations. Its role has been observed in Surinamese women of African heritage. However, the expected effect of physical activity on obesity was not observed in Surinamese people of Asian heritage. That is to say that the lack of physical activity among African-Surinamese women lowers obesity levels, but Asian-Surinamese women may or may not become obese whether they engage in physical exercise or not. The study focused only on the African and Asian groups.