Abstract

ANSELMO OLINTO, Maria Teresa; DIAS DA COSTA, Juvenal Soares; KAC, Gilberto  and  PASCOAL PATTUSSI, Marcos. Abdominal obesity epidemiology amongst adult women resident in Southern Brazil.. ALAN [online]. 2007, vol.57, n.4, pp.349-356. ISSN 0004-0622.

The objective of this study was to investigate the risk factors associated with abdominal obesity in women. A cross-sectional population based study was carried out on 981 women aged 20 to 60 years living in Southern Brazil. Abdominal adiposity was assessed by waist circumference (WC) = 88 cm. Poisson regression models were used to obtain prevalence ratios (PR) and their confidence intervals. The abdominal obesity prevalence was 23,3% (IC95%: 20,7-26,0). The main factors associated with the outcome were: having low education level, being unemployed, being more than 40 years old, having family obesity history, and being married. Adjusted analyses showed increased obesity prevalence in hypertensive women (Prevalence Ratio - PR=2,06; CI95%: 1,58 - 2,69) and those having higher number of children (PR=1,17; CI95% 1,00 - 1,37). Later menarche, at 12-13 years and at 14 years of age, protected against obesity comparing to women with earlier menarche at 8-11 years, respectively, 31% and 46% of protection. The understanding of how the abdominal obesity is distributed among the population allows effective planning and action implementation towards the reduction rates of this nutritional and public health problem.

Keywords : Abdominal obesity; abdominal adiposity; women; risk factors; menarche; populational based-study.