Original articleSevere obesity: Investigating the socio-demographics within the extremes of body mass index
Section snippets
Background
The increasing prevalence of obesity has been extensively reported in recent times and continues to place a burden on the public health system internationally and within Australia [1], [2], [3]. Reports of the dramatic end of the distribution, the proportion with class II and III obesity (often called severe or morbid obesity, defined as BMI ≥ 35) are relatively rare despite increases reported at twice the rate of obesity overall [4]. In South Australia, there have been similar increases in
The South Australian Health Omnibus Survey
The HOS is a user-pays survey co-ordinated by the Population Research and Outcome Studies Unit, South Australian Department of Health. These face-to-face household interview surveys of people aged 15 years and over (about n = 3000 people each year) have provided reliable estimates of self-reported height and weight since 1991 [15]. HOS is a representative population survey that involves a multistage, systematic, clustered area sample of people living in metropolitan Adelaide and country centres
Results
The age standardised prevalence of obesity in 1991 using HOS data was 11.1% (95% confidence interval (CI) 9.9–12.4) and was 27.2% (95% CI 25.3–29.1) in 2006 (χ2 trend = 1197.13, p ≤ 0.001). This represents a relative percentage increase of 144.8%. The prevalence of class II and III obesity combined increased from 2.4% (95% CI 1.8–3.0) in 1991 to 8.1% (95% CI 7.0–9.0) in 2006, a relative percentage increase of 241.2% (χ2 trend = 233.66, p ≤ 0.001). The prevalence of class III obesity increased from 0.6%
Discussion
This research has shown that there have been significant increases in the extreme classes of obesity over the last 16 years. In addition, women and lower socioeconomic groups and younger age groups (20–54 years) are more likely to be classified as having class II and III obesity when compared to class I. The increases within these classes are a progressively more crucial health care issue because of the associated morbidity and prevalence of related chronic conditions.
The strength in the NWAHS
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution to the study by research, clinic and recruiting staff, and for the generosity of the NWAHS participants in the giving of their time and effort.
References (32)
- et al.
The increasing prevalence of diabetes in South Australia: the relationship with population ageing and obesity
Public Health
(2007) Increases in morbid obesity in the USA: 2000–2005
Public Health
(2007)- et al.
Non-fatal disease burden associated with excess body mass index and waist circumference in New Zealand adults
Aust NZ J Public Health
(2006) - et al.
Reliability of self-reported behavioural health risk factors in a South Australian telephone survey
Aust NZ J Public Health
(1999) - et al.
Do people with risky behaviours participate in biomedical cohort studies?
BMC Public Health
(2006) - et al.
How valid are self-reported height and weight? A comparison between CATI self-report and clinic measurements using a large cohort study
Aust NZ J Public Health
(2006) - et al.
Socioeconomic status and weight change in adults: a review
Social Sci Med
(2005) - et al.
The continuing epidemics of obesity and diabetes in the United States
JAMA
(2001) - et al.
Obesity in South Australia adults—prevalence, projections and generational assessment over 13 years
Aust NZ J Public Health
(2005) - et al.
Trends in overweight and obesity among adults in Canada (1970–1992): evidence from national surveys using measured height & weight
Int J Obesity
(2002)
Increases in clinically severe obesity in the United States, 1986–2000
A weighty issue: the status of overweight and obesity in South Australian adults from 1991 to 2001
Surgery for severe obesity
New Engl J Med
Morbidity of severe obesity
Surg Clin N Am
Prevalence of class I, II and III obesity in Canada
CMAJ
Trends and correlates of class 3 obesity in the United States from 1990 through 2000
JAMA
Cited by (18)
Obesity: A social and public policy perspective
2020, Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome: From Physiologic Principles to Clinical PracticePrevalence of class-I, class-II and class-III obesity in Australian adults between 1995 and 2011-12
2015, Obesity Research and Clinical PracticeCitation Excerpt :A socioeconomic gradient in obesity, where greater prevalence of obesity is observed in more disadvantaged groups, has been reported in most high income countries [10]. Two previous studies have reported a greater risk of severe obesity in more socioeconomically disadvantaged groups [11,6]. However to the best of our knowledge, no previous study has explored differences in the prevalence of obesity classes I, II and III [1], across socioeconomic strata.
Socioeconomic status, obesity and lifestyle in men: The Geelong Osteoporosis Study
2010, Journal of Men's HealthCitation Excerpt :The novel finding of this study was the inverse association between measures of obesity and a more sensitive measure of SES than has previously been applied in examinations of this relationship in men. Our finding that measures of obesity were greater in men from low SES groups is consistent with some [1,2,27], but not all [3,5,6,11], existing literature. Also consistent with current literature was the observed greater level of takeaway food consumption in the lower SES grouping [10], lower level of recreational physical activity (sports and leisure) in this same group [9] and increased levels of smoking [28–31].
Anti-Obesity Activities of Probiotics and Dairy Based Ingredients
2022, Probiotic Research in Therapeutics: Volume 5: Metabolic Diseases and Gut BacteriaDoes Weight-Cycling Influence Illness Beliefs in Obesity? A Gender-Sensitive Approach
2021, Journal of Obesity