Prevalence of obesity and abdominal obesity in the Lausanne population.

Pedro Marques-Vidal,Gérard Waeber,Vincent Mooser,Murielle Bochud,Fred Paccaud,Peter Vollenweider

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-8-330

Abstract

BackgroundObesity can be defined using body mass index (BMI) or waist (abdominal obesity). Little information exists regarding its prevalence and determinants in Switzerland. Hence, we assessed the levels of obesity as defined by BMI or waist circumference in a Swiss population-based sample.MethodsCross-sectional, population-based non-stratified random sample of 3,249 women and 2,937 men aged 35–75 years living in Lausanne, Switzerland. Overall participation rate was 41%.ResultsIn men, the prevalences of overweight (BMI ≥25 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) were 45.5% and 16.9%, respectively, higher than in women (28.3% and 14.3%, respectively). The prevalence of abdominal obesity (waist ≥102 in men and ≥88 cm in women) was higher in women than in men (30.6% vs. 23.9%). Obesity and abdominal obesity increased with age and decreased with higher educational level in both genders. In women, the prevalence of obesity was lower among former and current smokers, whereas in men the prevalence of obesity was higher in former smokers but did not differ between current and never smokers. Multivariate analysis showed age to be positively related, and education and physical activity to be negatively related with obesity and abdominal obesity in both genders, whereas differential effects of smoking were found between genders.ConclusionThe prevalence of abdominal obesity is higher than BMI-derived obesity in the Swiss population. Women presented with more abdominal obesity than men. The association between smoking and obesity levels appears to differ between genders.

Highlights

Obesity can be defined using body mass index (BMI) or waist
The prevalence of abdominal obesity was higher in women than in men (30.6% vs. 23.9%, p < 0.001), increased with age (Table 1) and decreased with educational level: in women, from 43.6% in those with basic education levels to 17.3% in those with university degrees (p < 0.001); the corresponding values were 24.8% and 15.6% for men (p < 0.001)
(page number not for citation purposes) http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/8/330 pensive measurement significantly related to cardiovascular risk factor levels [16] and all-cause mortality [17], it could be preferred to BMI or to body fat measurements to screen subjects at risk, but it is difficult to assess and may have a wide inter-observer variation

Summary

Introduction

Obesity can be defined using body mass index (BMI) or waist (abdominal obesity). Little information exists regarding its prevalence and determinants in Switzerland. We assessed the levels of obesity as defined by BMI or waist circumference in a Swiss population-based sample. For almost 250 years, obesity has been defined as an increased body fat [1], but as body fat has rarely been directly assessed, surrogate variables such as body mass index (BMI) or waist have been used. There is little evidence whether using different anthropometric indices can lead to similar estimations of the prevalence of obesity in the general population [8,9], and recent information on the prevalence and determinants of obesity and increased waist (abdominal obesity) in the Swiss population are scarce. We used data from a large, population-based examination survey conducted in Lausanne to assess the prevalence of obesity as measured by BMI and waist levels

Methods

Results

Conclusion