Social Contrasts in the Incidence of Obesity Among Adult Large-City Dwellers in Poland in 1986 and 1996

Abstract

The incidence of obesity, defined as the fraction of persons with BMIs exceeding 30·0, was examined in two birth cohorts of 40-50-year-old occupationally active inhabitants of the city of Wrocław, Poland. In both cohorts and both genders obesity increased monotonically with decreasing position on a three-level educational scale. During the 1986-1996 decade obesity increased dramatically among males with trade school education only; concomitant shifts were much smaller or absent in the college-educated groups. The contrast in obesity between the opposite ends of the educational scale has widened markedly in both genders; and the between-gender gap has declined somewhat.

Variation in body mass index among Polish adults: Effects of sex, age, birth cohort, and social class

“…The concordance between these two studies is all the more noteworthy because in young adults, BMI is a measure whose meaning may be more ambiguous than in middle-aged adults: in the former a high BMI may theoretically be indicative either of fatness or of a strongly muscular, "mesomorphic" physique (Kopelman, 2000), and it is only at later ages that BMI becomes very strongly correlated with various measures of fatness (Rogucka and Bielicki, 1999).…”

“…Body mass index (BMI), long used by anthropologists as one of the measures of relative weight, has for some time been enjoying star status in the health sciences, becuase it has proved to be an excellent estimator of body fatness, especially among middleaged adults (e.g., Rogucka and Bielicki, 1999); the recent increases in the proportion of overweight and obese individuals are now recognized as one of the major health risks faced by societies of the developed world (Flegal et al, 1998;Rosengren et al, 2000;Kopelman, 2000). However, physical anthropology is essentially a study of normal human variation.…”

Changes in the BMI of Polish conscripts between 1965 and 2001: secular and socio-occupational variation

“…1,22 After the age of 50 years, the fraction of overweight exceeded 70% both in males and females. There is thus some reason for concern, as it could be expected that observed prevalence of overweight and obesity in 19-year-old males (14.3% in 2001) will increase with age in this cohort.…”

“…The prevalence of obesity in Poland increased from the 1960s through the 1980s. 1 The prevalence of obesity was higher among women than men and among those with higher in contrast to lower educational status. 1 The social and gender distribution of obesity before the political and economic transition, which began in 1990, may have reflected positive cultural and social attributes associated with fatness during the era of socialism.…”

“…1 The prevalence of obesity was higher among women than men and among those with higher in contrast to lower educational status. 1 The social and gender distribution of obesity before the political and economic transition, which began in 1990, may have reflected positive cultural and social attributes associated with fatness during the era of socialism. Political change and liberalization of trade in Poland since 1990 have resulted in increased income and in turn economic disparities and a stronger association between education and income.…”