Need for weight management in Switzerland: findings from National Blood Pressure Week 2009

Abstract

BackgroundThe Swiss Health Survey (SHS) provides the only source of data for monitoring overweight and obesity in the general population in Switzerland. However, this survey reports body mass index (BMI) based on self-reported height and weight, and is therefore subject to measurement errors. Moreover, it is not possible to differentiate between overall and abdominal overweight. In this study, we aimed to gain a better understanding of the need for weight management in the general population of Switzerland by exploring and comparing prevalence rates of BMI and waist circumference (WC) based on physical measurements by trained observers, based on data from the 2009 National Blood Pressure Week (NBPW).MethodsSample selection was based on a one-stage cluster design. A total of 385 pharmacies representing 3,600 subjects were randomly selected from pharmacies participating in NBPW. BMI measures based on physical weight and height (NBPW) were compared with self-reported BMI measures from the SHS. BMI and WC measurements from NBPW were then used to produce population estimates of overweight and obesity.ResultsBMI-based overall prevalence of overweight and obesity was 43.6%, which was 4.7% higher than the value based on the respective SHS data. Overweight and obesity were more common in men (54.3%) than in women (33.5%). However, the overall prevalence of increased WC in the general population was estimated to be 64.4%, with more women (68.4%) than men (60.1%) exhibiting a WC above the threshold. The prevalence of subjects requiring weight management in the Swiss population remained high, even after adjusting WC for false positive and negative cases.ConclusionsFirstly, it may be more appropriate for health promotion programs to address the wider group identified by WC, which includes subjects who need to reduce their weight, or gain no further weight. Secondly, the gender differences are reversed depending on the use of WC or BMI to identify subjects suitable for health promotion programs; more women than men are identified by WC, and more men than women using BMI. These differences should be accounted for in gender-specific health promotion programs.

Prevalence of obesity and overweight and associated nutritional factors in a population-based Swiss sample: an opportunity to analyze the impact of three different European cultural roots

“…In conclusion, our data confirm that obesity and overweight are common in Switzerland, affecting almost half of the Swiss resident population aged [15 years. Similar to what was found in prior studies [23,24], using BMI and WC to define obesity led to different prevalence's, with a larger proportion of women identified as obese when using WC. The positive association between dietary salt intake and BMI deserves more attention, not only because of the known link between salt and hypertension in obese, which may contribute to the increased morbidity attributed to higher BMI, but also in the framework of a possible role of salt consumption in the development of obesity.…”

“…The latest Swiss studies measuring anthropometric parameters-CoLaus [23] in [2003][2004][2005][2006] and National Blood Pressure Week (NBPW) [24] in 2009-were performed on selected samples-a single town in CoLaus and a sample of subjects in NBPW attending the participating pharmacies on spontaneous run-in basis-thus do not allow any comparison between the different linguistic-cultural regions of Switzerland.…”

Persistent and anti-persistent pattern in stride-to-stride variability of treadmill walking: Influence of rhythmic auditory cueing

“…The participants' characteristics were (mean (SD): age 36yr (11), body mass 71kg (15), and height 171cm (9). The average Body Mass Index (BMI) was 24 ( 4), what is close to the average BMI of the Swiss population (24.9, (Volken, Schaffert, & Ruesch, 2011)). The study was approved by the local ethics committee (Commission d'éthique du Valais).…”

“…The detection of fractal properties by using this method has been questioned. It seems that short-range dependence in time series can lead to erroneous interpretation (false positive) (Maraun et al, 2004;Wagenmakers, Farrell, & Ratcliff, 2004). In order to not over-interpret DFA results, we will use throughout the present article the notion of persistence rather than long-range correlations.…”

Risk of overweight and obesity among migrants in Switzerland

“…On average, migrants are often much younger than Swiss nationals and the proportion of males as compared to females is higher among migrant groups. Since BMI tends to increase with age and males have a higher risk of having a BMI ≥ 25 [35,36], all reported rates were directly standardized to the European Standard Population in order to take account of the different age and gender composition of migrants and Swiss nationals [37]. The weighted, age-and gender-adjusted rates cover the migrant and Swiss population aged 17 -64 years.…”