Obesity in US Workers: The National Health Interview Survey, 1986 to 2002

Abstract

Weight loss intervention programs targeting workers employed in occupational groups with high or increasing rates of obesity are urgently needed.

Comparison of body mass index with waist circumference and skinfold-based percent body fat in firefighters: adiposity classification and associations with cardiovascular disease risk factors

“…The prevalence of obesity was much lower in fire departments having a good WEFIT program than in fire departments without a WEFIT program: 25.3 versus 35.6 % by BMI . The prevalence of combined overweight and obesity was lower among female firefighters than among male firefighters, which is consistent with the previous studies (Caban et al 2005;Jahnke et al 2012). Future studies are needed to explore the reasons for the gender difference.…”

“…The prevalence of obesity in the working population of the USA as in the general population has increased, particularly over the last three decades (Caban et al 2005). Male firefighters are among the top three occupational groups with the highest obesity prevalence in the USA (Caban et al 2005;Choi et al 2011;Haddock et al 2011).…”

“…The prevalence of obesity in the working population of the USA as in the general population has increased, particularly over the last three decades (Caban et al 2005). Male firefighters are among the top three occupational groups with the highest obesity prevalence in the USA (Caban et al 2005;Choi et al 2011;Haddock et al 2011). As a result, overweight and obesity is an important occupational health issue to be urgently addressed for the 1.1 million US firefighters ) who are at high risk of on-duty cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality (Geibe et al 2008;Kales et al 2007) and musculoskeletal injuries Poplin et al 2012).…”

“…Although body mass index (BMI) has been the most widely used adiposity measure at wellness and fitness (WEFIT) programs for firefighters across the nation (Clark et al 2002;Donovan et al 2009;Soteriades et al 2005;Tsismenakis et al 2009) as for other occupational groups (Alasagheirin et al 2011;Caban et al 2005;Escoto et al 2010;Sieber et al 2014), there has been a strong skepticism as to whether BMI is a valid measure for adiposity among firefighters (Choi et al 2011;Haddock et al 2011;Jitnarin et al 2013;Poston et al 2011) because of selfselection into the occupation and the possibility of building musculature through on-the-job physical training. Two assumptions underlying firefighter skepticism are: (1) BMI may overestimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among firefighters because of its intrinsic inability to differentiate fat body mass and lean body mass and (2) other anthropometric adiposity measures such as waist circumference and skinfold-based percent body fat may be more strongly associated with biological CVD risk factors among firefighters than BMI (Choi et al 2011).…”

Body Mass Index Assessment of Health Care Professionals in a Primary Care Setting in Portugal: a Cross Sectional Study

“…This is consistent with Caban et al data that showed a higher prevalence of obesity in health service personnel and lower in healthdiagnosing occupations, also in the US. 8 Another interesting finding was that after adjusting for age, sex and occupation, no difference was found between study places. Homogeneity between study places reinforces the consistency of the study and leads us to speculate that the mix of obesity determinants should be the same.…”