Obesity and occupation in Thailand: using a Bayesian hierarchical model to obtain prevalence estimates from the National Health Examination Survey

Abstract

Background Like many developing countries, Thailand has experienced a rapid rise in obesity, accompanied by a rapid change in occupational structure. It is plausible that these two trends are related, with movement into sedentary occupations leading to increases in obesity. National health examination survey data contains information on obesity and socioeconomic conditions that can help untangle the relationship, but analysis is challenging because of small sample sizes. Methods This paper explores the relationship between occupation and obesity using data on 10,127 respondents aged 20–59 from the 2009 National Health Examination Survey. Obesity is measured using waist circumference. Modelling is carried out using an approach known as Multiple Regression with Post-Stratification (MRP). We use Bayesian hierarchical models to construct prevalence estimates disaggregated by age, sex, education, urban-rural residence, region, and occupation, and use census population weights to aggregate up. The Bayesian hierarchical model is designed to protect against overfitting and false discovery, which is particularly important in an exploratory study such as this one. Results There is no clear relationship between the overall sedentary nature of occupations and obesity. Instead, obesity appears to vary occupation by occupation. For instance, women in professional occupations, and men who are agricultural or fishery workers, have relatively low rates of obesity. Conclusion Bayesian hierarchical models plus post-stratification offers new possibilities for using surveys to learn about complex health issues.

National nutrition surveillance programmes in south-east Asian countries and China: a systematic scoping review

“…We identified 54 945 unique papers through our academic database search; 26 of these met the inclusion criteria and we used them to derive programme information. 27 , 31 , 32 , 37 – 40 , 53 – 56 , 72 , 107 , 108 , 127 – 138 For most programmes, we derived methodological information from 89 programme reports or factsheets, 20 – 26 , 28 – 30 , 33 – 36 , 43 , 50 – 52 , 57 – 62 , 65 – 69 , 73 – 78 , 80 – 95 , 99 – 106 , 109 – 119 , 139 – 157 12 programme and/or governmental websites 41 – 48 , 63 , 70 , 157 – 159 and eight publications through our manual search of references. 49 , 64 , 71 , 96 , 120 , 123 , 160 , 161 We also received information about 11 programmes and five related publications 79 , 97 , 98 , 121 , 162 directly from national health and nutrition officials ( Fig.…”