Prevalence, Distributions and Determinants of Obesity and Central Obesity in the Southern Cone of America

FERNANDO LANAS; BAZZANO LYDIA; RUBINSTEIN ADOLFO LUIS; LAURA GUTIERREZ; JOSE A. MANFREDI; PAMELA SERON; NORA MORES; ROSANA POGGIO; HECTOR OLIVERA; JIANG HE; VILMA E. IRAZOLA; ELORRIAGA NATALIA

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2016

1932-6203

BackgroundObesity is a major determinant of cardiovascular disease in South America. However, pop-ulation-based data are limited.MethodsA total of 7,524 women and men, aged 35 to 74 years old, were randomly selected from 4cities in the Southern Cone of Latin America between February 2010 and December 2011.Obesity clinical measurements and cardiovascular risk factors were measured using stan-dard methodology.ResultsThe prevalence of obesity and central obesity were 35.7% and 52.9%, respectively. The prevalence of obesity and central obesity were higher in women, and even higher in women with lower education compared with women with higher education. In men and women obe- sity was associated with a higher prevalence of diabetes, odds ratio (OR) 2.38 (95% Confi- dence Interval [CI]: 1.86 to 3.05) and 3.01 (95%CI 2.42 to 3.74) respectively, hypertension (OR 2.79 (95%CI 2.32 to 3.36) and 2.40 (95%CI 2.05 to 2.80) respectively, dyslipidemia (OR 1.83 (95%CI 1.50 to 2.24) and 1.69 (95%CI 1.45 to 1.98), respectively, low physical activity (OR 1.38(95%CI 1.14 to 1.68) and 1.38 (95%CI 1.18 to 1.62) respectively and alower prevalence of smoking (OR, 0.65 (95%CI 0.53 to 0.80) and 0.58(95%CI 0.48 to 0.70) respectively.ConclusionsObesity and central obesity are highly prevalent in the general population in the Southern Cone of Latin America and are strongly associated with cardiovascular risk factor preva- lence. These data suggest that efforts toward prevention, treatment, and control of obesity should be a public health priority in the Southern Cone of Latin America.