Author(s):
Camões, Miguel 
; Lopes, Carla ; Oliveira, Andreia ; Santos, Ana ; Barros, Henrique
Date: 2010
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10198/4651
Origin: Biblioteca Digital do IPB
Subject(s): Incidence; Obesity; Central obesity; Age; Education; Gender effect
Description
Objective: To provide overall and central obesity incidence estimates by gender, age and educational level in an urban Portuguese population.
Methods: As part of the EPIPorto study, 1,621 Porto, Portugal adult residents were evaluated in 1999–2003 and 2005–2008. Overall obesity was defined by a BMI >=30.0 kg/m2 and central obesity by a WC >88.0 cm in women and >102.0 cm in men. Relative risks (RR) and 95% con!dence intervals (95% CI) were computed using Poisson regression. Survival analysis was also performed.
Results: The age-adjusted incidence rates/100 person-years of overall and central obesity were, respectively, 1.70, 95% CI: 1.34–2.19 and 5.97, 95% CI: 5.09–7.03 in women; 1.08, 95% CI: 0.73–1.64 and 2.38, 95% CI: 1.81–3.20 in men. In multivariate analysis, older women presented a higher risk of overall obesity. Moreover, a significant inverse association was found between obesity and education in women (>11 vs. <5 years: RR=0.43, 95% CI: 0.22–0.84, for overall obesity; RR=0.45 95% CI: 0.29–0.69, for central obesity). For overall obesity, 10.1% of women and 5.1% of men became obese during the 5-year study period. Higher proportions were observed regarding central obesity, 29.1% and 11.4% for women and men, respectively.
Conclusions: Over time, individuals developed central obesity faster than overall obesity. Our results support that increasing levels of education limit this ongoing development of obesity, particularly among
women.
