Prevalence of overweight and associated factors in a metropolitan area in the Northeast of Brazil

• Main Authors: Ariel Figueiredo Oliveira, Augusto César Santiago Araújo Júnior, Josilda Ferreira Cruz, Mário Augusto Ferreira Cruz, Demetrius Silva de Santana, Karla Freire Rezende, Cristiane Costa da Cunha Oliveira, Sônia Oliveira Lima
• Format: Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo 2018-04-01
• Series: Revista da Faculdade de Ciências Médicas de Sorocaba
• Subjects: peso corporal; sobrepeso; obesidade; índice de massa corpórea; epidemiologia; estudos transversais.
• Online Access: https://revistas.pucsp.br/index.php/RFCMS/article/view/28170

Objective: This article aimed to identify the clinical and socio-demographic profile of overweight adults evaluated through survey and anthropometric measurements in the city of Aracaju, Sergipe, Brazil. Methods: Descriptive transversal outline survey-type study in a quantitative analytical approach. The sample was composed of 690 individuals who randomly sought four reference centers in the municipality of Aracaju for abdominal ultrasonography. Anthropometric measurements were taken between July 2013 and July 2014. The following variables were analyzed: age, gender, income, schooling, comorbidities, waist girth and body mass index (BMI). The statistical program Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 22.0 was chosen, and significance level was p<0.05. Results: 494 women (71.6%) and 196 men (28.4%) were analyzed. The average age was 39.4 years, and 42.3 years for obese patients. Regarding BMI, 52.9% of patients presented normal BMI; 31.2% were overweight; 10.4% presented level 1 obesity; 4.5%, level 2; and 1.0%, level 3. The BMI was significantly higher among the hypertensive ones (p=0.001), with poor schooling (p=0.004), and those with higher income (p=0.003). Average waist circumference was 104.94 cm among the obese portion. Conclusion: The observed high prevalence of overweight in the studied adults is in accordance with the national epidemiologic tendency, which allows classifying the situation as a public health problem in the evaluated municipality.