CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Objective: The present study aimed to identify nutrition transition (NT) profiles inArgentina (2005?2013) and assess their association with obesity in the adultpopulation.Design: A large cross-sectional study was performed considering data sets ofnationally representative surveys. A multiple correspondence analysis coupledwith hierarchical clustering was conducted to detect geographical clusters ofassociation among sociodemographic and NT indicators. Multilevel logisticregression models were used to assess the effect of NT profile (proxy variableof contextual order) on obesity occurrence.Setting: First, we used geographically aggregated data about the adult and childpopulations in Argentina. Second, we defined the population of adults whoparticipated in the National Survey of Chronic Disease Risk Factors (2013) as thestudy population.Participants: Twenty-four geographical units that make up the territory ofArgentina and 32 365 individuals over 18 years old living in towns of at least 5000people.Results: Three NT profiles were identified: ?Socionutritional lag? (characterized byundernutrition and socio-economically disadvantaged conditions; profile 1);?Double burden of malnutrition? (undernutrition and overweight in highlyurbanized scenarios; profile 2); and ?Incipient socionutritional improvement?(low prevalence of malnutrition and more favourable poverty indicator values;profile 3). Profiles 1 and 2 were significantly associated (OR; 95% CI) with a higherrisk of obesity occurrence in adults (1·17; 1·02, 1·32 and 1·44; 1·26, 1·64,respectively) compared with profile 3.Conclusions: Argentina is facing different NT processes, where sociodemographicfactors play a major role in shaping diverse NT profiles. Most of the identifiedprofiles were linked to obesity burden in adults.