Prevalence of obesity, central obesity and the associated factors in urban population aged 20–70 years, in the north of Iran: a population‐based study and regression approach

Abstract

Obesity is an undesirable outcome of changing of lifestyle and behaviours. It is also reversible predisposing factor for the development of several debilitating diseases. This study was aimed to determine the prevalence rate of obesity, overweight, central obesity and their associated factors in the north of Iran. We conducted a population-based cross-sectional study with a sample of 1800 women and 1800 men with respective mean ages of 37.5 +/- 13.0 and 38.5 +/- 14.2 years of urban population aged 20-70 years living in the north of Iran. The demographic and lifestyle data, in particular, age, gender, marital status, marriage age, family history of obesity, educational level, occupation, occupational and leisure time physical activity, duration of exercise per week, parity and the number of children were collected with a designed questionnaire. Diagnosis of obesity and central obesity were confirmed by the WHO standard recommended method by determining of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC). Logistic regression model was used to estimate the adjusted odds ratio (OR) and its 95% confidence interval. Over half of the study subjects were at educational levels of high school or higher; 79.4% of population was married and 35.3% had a family history of parental obesity. The majority of subjects in particular women had none or low levels of physical activity. The overall prevalence rates of obesity and overweight were 18.8% and 34.8% respectively. The overall prevalence rate of central obesity was 28.3%. The rate of obesity in women was higher than men (P < 0.0001). In both genders, particularly in the women, the rate of obesity was raised by increasing age. There was an inverse relation between the risk of obesity and marriage age, the high level of education (OR = 0.19, P < 0.0001), severe occupational activity (OR = 0.44, P < 0.0001), the level of exercise (in subjects with 3-4 h exercise per week, OR = 0.58, P < 0.001) and leisure time activity. Marriage, history of parental obesity and parity > or =5 were associated with increased risk of obesity (OR = 2.2, P < 0.001 and OR = 2.43, P < 0.0001 and OR = 3.73, P < 0.0001 respectively). The results of this study indicate an increased rate of obesity and overweigh in the north population of Iran. With respect to these findings, low level of activity and education, parity, family history of obesity, marriage at earlier age and ageing are responsible for both obesity and central obesity in the north of Iran. Therefore, a community-based multiple strategies are required to combat with increasing rate of obesity and its subsequent complications such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, hypertension and osteoarthritis.

Prevalence of obesity and associated sociodemographic and lifestyle factors in Morocco

“…In addition, it increased from 5?5 % in 1984 to 12?2 % in 1998 in the urban population and from 2?6 % in 1984 to 7?4 % in 1998 in the rural population (19) . Gender difference in the prevalence of obesity was found to be highly significant in our population and there are similar findings in previous studies in Morocco (23) and in other countries (26,27) .…”

Secular trends and risk factors of overweight and obesity among Kuwaiti adults: National Nutrition Surveillance System data from 1998 to 2009

“…A similar gender differential has also been reported in other studies in the Arab Gulf region (10,14) . Further, we found that the prevalence and odds of obesity as well as BMI increased with age until the fifth decade in both males and females and then declined, similar to age-related changes reported in Saudis (15) and Iranians (16) . Stratification by gender and adjustment for age and education in a logistic model showed that overweight and obesity prevalences in both males and females increased (17) , but with lower prevalence of overweight and obesity, possibility reflecting an early stage in the economic transition.…”

A Study on Abdominal Obesity at Basra University Staffs

“…[15] which is similar to our finding to some extent. our study differ from a study done Spain where all the values of obesity and abdominal obesity is less (16.6% in males and 15.2% in females ) [16] also Iran study had less prevalence of obesity (34.8%)and less abdominal obesity (28.3) but it is similar to our study in that female had higher prevalence of abdominal obesity than males [17] Netherlands study showed very low prevalence of obesity in compared to our study, it was 4 and 6% in men and women, respectively [18] …”