[Overweight and obesity prevalence in Northeast and Southeast Regions of Brazil].
OBJECTIVE
to evaluate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children, adolescents, adults and elderlies from Northeast and Southeast regions of Brazil.


METHODS
anthropometric evaluation of 17.184 people, studied in Life Pattern Research conducted by Brazilian Institute of Geographic and Statistics in 1996/97, by body mass index. Overweight and obesity definitions according to body mass index values proposed by Cole et al. which are related to adult definition.


RESULTS
It was studied a little more females in this study (53.1%). Average age was 29 years and five months ( +/- 20 years), median was 25 years and six months. Overweight prevalence was 10.8% in children, 9.9% in adolescents and 28.3% among adults and obesity was 7.3%, 1.8% and 9.7% respectively. It was noticed a gradual increase in overweight or obesity prevalence since infancy through adult age with decrease among the elderly.


CONCLUSIONS
Prevalence of overweight and obesity joined is higher among females. More than half of the women among 50 and 69 years old, from Northeast and Southeast regions of Brazil have overweight or obesity. There are few studies of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents and a lot of definition for obesity in children which makes more difficult the comparison of studies of prevalence among children.
Abrantes
Marcelo Militão
MM
Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil.
Lamounier
Joel Alves
JA
Colosimo
Enrico Antônio
EA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors