Trends of BMI and prevalence of overweight and obesity in Portugal (1995–2005): a systematic review

Abstract

Objective: Locale-specific data on BMI and overweight/obesity are necessary to understand how the obesity epidemic is evolving in each setting. We aimed to describe the temporal trends of mean BMI and prevalences of overweight/obesity in studies that evaluated Portuguese adults and older people. Design: Systematic review, conducted via a PubMed search up to January 2011 and independent reference screening and data extraction. Twenty-one eligible studies were identified. Data were extracted from the published reports and obtained from the authors of seven of the largest studies. Adjusted ecological estimates of mean BMI and prevalences of overweight/obesity were computed by linear regression. Results: Between 1995 and 2005, when using data obtained from anthropometric measurements, overweight prevalence increased by 3?2 % and 3?5 % and obesity prevalence by 7?4 % and 1?3 % among women and men, respectively, while mean BMI did not vary meaningfully. When using self-reported information, mean BMI increased by 0?8 kg/m 2 and 0?9 kg/m 2 , overweight prevalence by 3?5 % and 3?7 % and obesity prevalence by 5?8 % and 5?5 % among women and men, respectively. Results from the 20-year-old conscripts showed a marked increase in these outcomes in the last decades. Conclusions: Our results show an important increase in overweight/obesity in younger ages. The trends in the indicators derived from self-reported data suggest an increase in awareness of the importance of overweight/obesity among the population. Keywords BMI Obesity Trends PortugalThe health consequences of obesity range from non-fatal but debilitating complaints with an adverse effect on quality of life to an increased risk of premature death (1) . Obesity is an important determinant of hypertension (2) and hyperlipidaemia (2) , type 2 diabetes mellitus (2) , metabolic syndrome (3) , CVD (4) and cancer (5) . Worldwide, it accounts for more than 33?4 million disability-adjusted life years (6) and at least 2?8 million deaths per year in adults (7) .Recent evidence from Western Europe in the last decades suggests that the prevalence of obesity has increased among children (8) and adults (9) . Locale-specific reliable and robust data on BMI distribution and overweight/ obesity prevalence at a population level are necessary to understand the magnitude and trends of the obesity epidemic in each setting, as well as to monitor the impact of public health measures.The most comprehensive data on the distribution of BMI and frequency of overweight and obesity in Portugal come from the National Health Surveys (10-12) (self-reported), young men evaluated for military recruitment (13,14) and two recent national surveys (15,16) . However, accurate estimation of the burden of morbidity and mortality associated with overweight and obesity in Portugal requires the best use of all available resources to obtain detailed information for different age groups and populations across the widest possible time span. A systematic review may allow their identification and descriptio...

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