title: Obesity, overweight, and their life course trajectories in veterans and non-veterans.
abstract: Veterans comprise a large and growing segment of the US population. Results from national telephone surveys suggest higher prevalence of overweight among Veterans compared with demographically similar non-Veterans, based on self-reported height and weight. Using 1999-2008 data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we compared 3,768 Veterans and 21,974 non-Veterans on: (i) several measures of adiposity based on direct anthropometry; (ii) life-course of self-reported BMI; and (iii) behaviors related to weight loss or maintenance. Whether Veterans were more likely than demographically similar non-Veterans to be obese or overweight depended on the adiposity measure employed. On BMI, Veterans were about equally likely to be obese (30+ kg/m(2)), but more likely to be overweight (25-29.9 kg/m(2)) by both self-report and by direct measurement (significantly so only by self-report). On waist-stature ratio, a roughly similar pattern was observed. On waist circumference, Veterans tended to have larger values than demographically similar non-Veterans, with more Veterans in the largest two categories. But on dual-photon X-ray absorptiometry, Veterans were less likely to have 35+% body fat than non-Veterans of similar age, gender, and race/ethnicity. Life-course trends in self-reported BMI suggested a possible burst of weight gain after military discharge. These results suggest that Veterans may, on average, have less excess body fat than non-Veterans--a pattern not revealed by standard anthropometric measures.
authors.affiliation: Seattle Epidemiologic Research and Information Center, VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington, USA. koepsell@u.washington.edu
authors.forename: Thomas D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Koepsell
authors.forename: Alyson J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Littman
authors.forename: Christopher W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Forsberg
mesh_terms: D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon; D050154:Adiposity; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D009765:Obesity / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014728:Veterans / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015430:Weight Gain