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Overweight and obesity prevalence and determinants in Italy: an update to 2010

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Abstract

Purpose

To provide updated information on trends and determinants of underweight, overweight, and obesity in Italian adults.

Methods

We considered data from 5 surveys conducted annually between 2006 and 2010, on a total of 14,135 subjects aged 18 years or more (6,834 men and 7,301 women), representative of the Italian adult population, including self-reported information on height and weight.

Results

Overall, 3.1 % of the Italian adult population was underweight (body mass index, BMI, <18.5 kg/m2; 0.8 % men, 5.3 % women), 31.8 % overweight (25≤ BMI <30 kg/m2; 39.8 % men, 24.4 % women), and 8.9 % obese (BMI ≥30 kg/m2; 8.5 % men, 9.4 % women). We observed no specific pattern of overweight/obesity across calendar years in men (multivariate prevalence ratios, PR, for 2010 vs 2006: 0.95; p for trend: 0.980) and a non-significant decreased trend in women (PR: 0.92; p for trend: 0.051). Prevalence of overweight/obesity significantly increased with age (PRs for ≥65 vs 18–24 years: 2.01 in men, 2.65 in women), decreased with education (PRs for high vs low education: 0.79 in men, 0.54 in women), and was less frequent in single than in married adults (PRs: 0.85 in men, 0.78 in women). Overweight/obesity was significantly more frequent in adults from southern versus northern Italy (PRs: 1.13 in men, 1.32 in women) and in former versus never smokers (PRs: 1.23 in men, 1.19 in women).

Conclusions

In Italy, we did not find unfavorable trends in overweight and obesity prevalence across calendar years. However, there are specific subgroups of the population with elevated prevalence of overweight and obesity, mainly adults from southern Italy and less educated ones.

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Acknowledgments

This work was conducted with contributions from the Italian Ministry of Health and the Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC grant number 10068).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Epidemiologia, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche “Mario Negri”, Via Giuseppe La Masa 19, 20156, Milan, Italy

    Silvano Gallus, Anna Odone, Alessandra Lugo, Cristina Bosetti & Carlo La Vecchia

  2. Dipartimento di Sanità Pubblica, Università degli Studi di Parma, Parma, Italy

    Anna Odone

  3. Istituto DOXA, Gallup International Association, Milan, Italy

    Paolo Colombo

  4. Dipartimento del Farmaco, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

    Piergiorgio Zuccaro

  5. Dipartimento di Medicina del Lavoro, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Carlo La Vecchia

Authors
  1. Silvano Gallus
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  2. Anna Odone
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  3. Alessandra Lugo
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  4. Cristina Bosetti
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  5. Paolo Colombo
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  6. Piergiorgio Zuccaro
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  7. Carlo La Vecchia
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Correspondence to Silvano Gallus.

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Gallus, S., Odone, A., Lugo, A. et al. Overweight and obesity prevalence and determinants in Italy: an update to 2010. Eur J Nutr 52, 677–685 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-012-0372-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-012-0372-y

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