Overweight and obesity in Italian adults 2004, and an overview of trends since 1983

Abstract

Objective: Overweight has been increasing in several developed countries over the last few decades. No update information on the issue is available for Italy. Design and setting: We conducted a computer assisted personal in-house interview survey in March-April 2004, on a sample of 2932 Italian individuals (1407 men and 1525 women) aged 18 years or over, representative of the general adult Italian population. Information on weight and height was self-reported. Results: Overall, 3.4% of the Italian adult population were underweight (o18.5 kg/m 2 , 0.9% of men and 5.8% of women), 31.3% were overweight (25.0-29.9 kg/m 2 , 38.4% of men, 24.7% of women), and 8.2% were obese (X30.0 kg/m 2 , 7.4% of men and 8.9% of women). Overweight or obesity was reported by 14.2% of subjects aged 18-24 years (20.6% of men and 7.6% of women). The highest proportions of overweight and obese subjects were in the 45-64 year age group for men (51.4% overweight, 10.0% obese) and in the X65 year age group for women (38.8% overweight, 13.8% obese). Age-and sex-standardised prevalence of overweight or obesity was 36.0% for more educated subjects, and 54.0% for less educated ones. It was 32.3% in northern, 44.3% in central and 47.0% in southern Italy. Overweight increased from 1983 to the early 1990s, and levelled off thereafter. Prevalence of obesity remained around 8-9% across the last 20 years. Conclusions: Trends of overweight and obesity in Italy are more favourable than in several developed countries. Still, approximately 15 million of Italian adults are overweight and 4 million obese.

Which dimensions of food-related lifestyle are likely to be associated with obesity in Italy?

“…Among the young these data confirmed a favourable pattern, since obesity prevalence in Italians aged 19-34 years was about 5 %, which is lower than that of other countries (34) . Moreover, the results confirmed that males had a prevalence of obesity slightly higher than that of females (24,33) . The present study suggests that obesity may be associated with some FRL dimensions.…”

“…Obesity rates are low in Italy (9 %) relative to most countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (23,24) , but the trend has been increasing in recent years. Focusing on this country, the objective of the present study was to compare obese v. non-obese consumers in terms of their general food-related lifestyles and to explore possible food-related factors affecting obesity in Italy.…”

Association analysis of vitamin D-binding protein gene polymorphisms with variations of obesity-related traits in Caucasian nuclear families

“…1,2 In the past two decades, the prevalence of obesity has increased dramatically in both developing and developed countries, 3,4 thus rendering obesity the sixth most important risk factor contributing to the overall burden of human disease worldwide. Family, twin and adoptee studies demonstrated that genetic factors significantly contribute to the etiology of obesity, with heritability ranging from 0.3 to 0.8.…”

Differences in weight gain in hypertensive and diabetic elderly patients primary care study

“…There is no doubt, that becoming overweight or obese takes many years perhaps decades, although obesity is often present in childhood and adolescence [7,8,9,10,11]. Genetic factors, lifestyle and social elements, diversity of cultural and economic background could be important as well, but mainly nutritional habits alone or combined with sedentary lifestyle are the real reasons for growing fat [4,12,13]. Weight change during old age often remains unexplored [12,14,15].…”

“…Genetic factors, lifestyle and social elements, diversity of cultural and economic background could be important as well, but mainly nutritional habits alone or combined with sedentary lifestyle are the real reasons for growing fat [4,12,13]. Weight change during old age often remains unexplored [12,14,15]. Weight gain is considered as part of the normal ageing process.…”