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. 2016 Apr;24(4):929-37.
doi: 10.1002/oby.21401. Epub 2016 Mar 3.

Inverse association between altitude and obesity: A prevalence study among andean and low-altitude adult individuals of Peru

Orison O Woolcott  1 , Cesar Gutierrez  2   3 , Oscar A Castillo  4 , Robert M Elashoff  5 , Darko Stefanovski  1 , Richard N Bergman  1
Affiliations

Inverse association between altitude and obesity: A prevalence study among andean and low-altitude adult individuals of Peru

Orison O Woolcott et al. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2016 Apr.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the association between altitude and obesity in a nationally representative sample of the Peruvian adult population.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional analysis of publicly available data from the Food and Nutrition National Center (CENAN, Peru), period 2009-2010. The Prevalence ratio of obesity and abdominal obesity was determined as a measure of association. Obesity and abdominal obesity were diagnosed based on direct anthropometric measurements.

Results: The final data set consisted of 31,549 individuals ≥20 years old. The prevalence ratio of obesity was as follows: 1.00 between 0 and 499 m (reference category), 1.00 (95% confidence interval 0.87-1.16) between 500-1,499 m, 0.74 (0.63-0.86) between 1,500-2,999 m, and 0.54 (0.45-0.64) at ≥3,000 m, adjusting for age, sex, self-reported physical activity, out-migration rate, urbanization, poverty, education, and geographical latitude and longitude. In the same order, the adjusted prevalence ratio of abdominal obesity was 1.00, 1.01 (0.94-1.07), 0.93 (0.87-0.99), and 0.89 (0.82-0.95), respectively. We found an interaction between altitude and sex and between altitude and age (P < 0.001, for both interactions) on the association with obesity and abdominal obesity.

Conclusions: Among Peruvian adult individuals, we found an inverse association between altitude and obesity, adjusting for multiple covariates. This adjusted association varied by sex and age.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest Statement: All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Crude prevalence of overweight and obesity in Peruvian adults ≥20 years old for 2009-2010
Obesity and abdominal obesity is almost double among women as compared with men. Central panel shows the prevalences of obesity and obesity classes. In the right panel, obesity-ATP III and Obesity-IDF indicate the prevalences of abdominal obesity diagnosed using the criteria established by the Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP) and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), respectively. Top ends of the bars indicate means. Error bars are 95% confidence intervals.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Age-specific percentage of Peruvian adult individuals with obesity by altitude bands, 2009–2010
Profiles are shown for women (A) and for men (B).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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