Epidemiologic behavior of obesity in the Maracaibo City metabolic syndrome prevalence study

Abstract

Introduction: Obesity is a worldwide public health issue. Since the epidemiological behaviour of this disease is not well established in our country, the purpose of this study was to determinate its prevalence in the Maracaibo City, Zulia State- Venezuela.

Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken using the data set from the Maracaibo City Metabolic Syndrome Prevalence Study. The sample consists of 2108 individuals from both genders and randomly selected: 1119 (53.09%) women and 989 (46.91%) men. The participants were interrogated for a complete clinical history and anthropometric measurements. To classify obesity, the WHO criteria for Body Mass Index (BMI), and Waist Circumference (WC) from the IDF/NHLBI/AHA/WHF/IAS/IASO-2009 (IDF-2009) and ATPIII statements were applied.

Results: For BMI, obesity had an overall prevalence of 33.3% (n = 701), and according to gender women had 32.4% (n = 363) and men had 34.2% (n = 338). Overweight had a prevalence of 34.8% (n = 733), Normal weight had 29.8% (n = 629), and Underweight had 2.1% (n = 45). Adding Obesity and Overweight results, the prevalence of elevated BMI (>25 Kg/m(2)) was 68.1%. Using the IDF-2009 WC's cut-off, Obesity had 74.2% prevalence, compared to 51.7% using the ATPIII parameters.

Conclusions: These results show a high prevalence of abdominal obesity in our locality defined by the WHO, IDF-2009 and ATPIII criteria, which were not designed for Latin-American populations. We suggest further investigation to estimate the proper values according to ethnicity, genetic background and sociocultural aspects.

Figure 1. Body Mass Index according to age groups and gender, Maracaibo City 2010.

The prevalence of Obesity was 32,4% for women and 34,2% for men. Significant difference (*) was observed between gender and in three age groups: ≤19 years, 20–29 years and 40–49 years.

Figure 2. Prevalence of Obesity according to WHO, ATPIII and IDF-2009 criteria, Maracaibo City 2010.

Using BMI (WHO) as tool for diagnosis, Obesity was observed in 33% of the sample and in both sexes. Taking waist circumference as reference, ATPIII obtained 51,7% of Obesity, in contrast to 74,2% applying IDF-2009's cut-offs. Using Z Test for proportions, significant differences were observed in between all classifications.