Prevalence of obesity in Malta

Cuschieri, Sarah; Vassallo, Josanne; Calleja, Neville; Camilleri, Ryan; Borg, Axisa Ayrton; Bonnici, Gary; Zhang, Yimeng; Pace, Nikolai Paul; Mamo, Julian

doi:10.1002/osp4.77

Cited by 31 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…years old exhibiting the highest prevalence of overweight for both genders. 12 A study conducted on Chinese adults also revealed that the prevalence of overweight increased with age up to the age of 60, and it declined after that. 7 This can be due to having a more sedentary lifestyle and performing less physical exercises while getting older.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Prevalence of overweight/obesity and associated factors in adults in Erbil, Iraq: A household survey

Shabu

2019

Zanco J. Med. Sci.

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Introduction Overweight and obesity involve abnormal or excessive fat accumulation and are considered a risk to health. A common measure of obesity is the Body Mass Index (BMI), which is obtained from dividing the weight of the individual (in kilograms) on the square of his or her height (in meters). A BMI equal or more than 25 is considered overweight, while a BMI of 30 and above is considered obese. A weight that is higher than what is regarded as a healthy weight for a given height is considered overweight or obese. 1 Globally, overweight and obesity are considered to be the 5th leading risk for deaths, 2 with an estimation of 2.8 million annual deaths among adults. 3 Overweight and obesity are wellrecognized risk factors for increasing the prevalence of different chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer. The estimated number of overweight adults in the world, according to a recent report, was 2.1 billion in 2013, compared to 857 million in 1980. 4 According to WHO, the prevalence of obesity worldwide has nearly tripled since 1975. In 2016, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in adults aging eighteen years and over was 39% and 13% respectively. Overweight and obesity are responsible for more deaths than underweight in countries where most of the overweight and obese people live. 5 Background and objective: Overweight and obesity are important risk factors for the development of some important chronic diseases and are, thus, considered leading risks for deaths. This study aimed to find out the prevalence of overweight and obesity with their associated risk factors in the adult population. Methods: A household cross-sectional survey was carried out in Erbil city, Iraq from April to June 2017. The study involved 1480 adults selected through a multi-stage sampling method. A specially designed questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic and other relevant data from the participants through direct interview. The height and weight were measured for all participants. Results: The overall prevalence of overweight and obesity was 74.3% (33.4% overweight and 40.9% obese). There was a statistically significant association between being overweight and obese and older age groups, female gender, being married, low level of education, unemployment, not smoking, and not performing physical exercises. Following a multivariate analysis age (OR = 2.36, 95% CI = 1.60-3.49), female gender (OR = 2.17, 95% CI = 1.53-3.08), and married status (OR = 1.87, 95% CI = 1.20-2.90) were found to be statistically significant factors associated with overweight and obesity. Conclusion: The prevalence of overweight and obesity in the adult population in Erbil city is very high. This alarming epidemic requires serious consideration of the health policymakers and public health specialists to plan effective and preventive and control measures. Health education is one way through which people's awareness of this important health issue could be raised.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Prevalence of overweight/obesity and associated factors in adults in Erbil, Iraq: A household survey

Shabu

2019

Zanco J. Med. Sci.

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“…When assessing sex differences across age-groups, Maltese females exhibited the highest burden discrepancy from males after the age of 60. Possible explanations for this finding could be that LBP is associated with the onset of menopause and to the reported fact that female obesity prevalence is higher than their male counterparts in this age-group [ 19 ]. There were vast differences in estimates of DALYs for Malta when our study’s DALYs were compared to the GBD 2017 study estimates for the reference year 2015.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to low back pain in Malta

et al. 2020

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Background: Low back pain (LBP) is a public health concern and a leading cause of ill health. A high prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints has been reported for Malta, a small European state. The aim was to estimate for the first time the burden of LBP at population level in Malta in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and compare to estimates obtained by the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. Method: The Maltese European Health Interview Survey dataset for 2015 provided the LBP prevalence data through representative self-reported history of chronic LBP within the past 12 months in combination with limitations to daily activities. Proportions of LBP severity (with and without leg painmild, moderate, severe and most severe) and their corresponding disability weights followed values reported in the GBD study. Years lived with disability (YLD) for LBP were estimated for the whole population by age and sex. Since LBP does not carry any mortality, YLD reflected DALYs. The estimated local DALYs per 100,000 were compared to the GBD 2017 study results for Malta for the same year. Results: LBP with activity limitation gave a point prevalence of 6.4% (95% Uncertainty Interval [UI] 5.7-7.2%) (5.6% males [95% UI 4.6-6.6%]; 7.3% females [95% UI 6.2-8.4%]), contributing to a total of 23,649 (95% UI 20,974-26,463) Maltese suffering from LBP. The LBP DALYs were of 716 (95% UI 558-896) per 100,000. Females experienced higher LBP burden (739 [95% UI 575-927] DALYs per 100,000) than males (693 [95% UI 541-867] DALYs per 100,000). Our DALY estimates were lower than those reported by the GBD 2017 study (i.e., 1829 [95% UI 1300-2466] per 100,000). Conclusions: LBP imposes a substantial burden on the Maltese population. Differences observed between national estimates and those of the GBD study suggest the integration of updated locally sourced data into the model and encouraging local contributors in order to improve the DALY estimates of each country.

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“…However, it has been postulated that underlying comorbidities and unhealthy lifestyle habits may be the reasons for this observation, where the male population tends to predominate (Wenham et al 2020;Purdie 2020). In fact, this is the case in Malta, where the male population has been reported to be more metabolically at risk than the female population, as seen in Table 1 (Cuschieri et al 2016a(Cuschieri et al , b, 2017(Cuschieri et al , 2018(Cuschieri et al , 2019Cuschieri 2020). Of concern is that a substantial proportion of the population (those with diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease) are at risk of acquiring complications if infected by COVID-19 (Fang et al 2020;Simonnet et al 2020).…”

Section: Malta and Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 panic, solidarity and equity—the Malta exemplary experience

Cuschieri

2020

J Public Health (Berl.)

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Aim The coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is a global crisis, with more than 2 million of the world's population infected. Public health authorities across the world are working endlessly to contain the situation. The small nation of Malta has been applauded by the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe for the instituted escalated public health measures that have kept (up till the time of writing) the COVID-19 spread contained with low transmission rate. The aim of this overview is to give a comprehensive summary of the COVID-19 situation, measures, legislations and initiatives for containment, management and safeguarding the Maltese nation that were taken. Subject and method A literature search was conducted using the Google search engine and Maltese online newspapers. Results To date (22nd April 2020), the COVID-19 situation in Malta is a total confirmed cases of 444, of which 276 are active cases, 165 have recovered and there were three deaths. Various measures were taken early on, from travel bans to prohibition of more than three-person gatherings, backed up with penalties. Both public and private sectors are working together to ensure containment and provision of services to the population. Solidarity has spread across the country. Conclusion A number of timely measures have been taken. However, it is down to the nation to continue to follow the restrictions and regulations instituted by the Superintendent of Public Health in conjunction with the health division and the government to overcome this pandemic together.

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Prevalence of obesity in Malta

Cited by 31 publications

References 4 publications

Prevalence of overweight/obesity and associated factors in adults in Erbil, Iraq: A household survey

Prevalence of overweight/obesity and associated factors in adults in Erbil, Iraq: A household survey

Measuring disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to low back pain in Malta

COVID-19 panic, solidarity and equity—the Malta exemplary experience

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