title: Prevalence of overweight and obesity among migrants in Switzerland: association with country of origin.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Migrants tend to present higher overweight and obesity levels, but whether this relationship applies to all nationalities has seldom been studied. The present study aimed to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity according to nationality in adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional population-based samples.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five-year nationwide interview surveys (Swiss Health Surveys - SHS) from 1992 to 2007 (n 63 766) and a local examination survey (CoLaus Study in Lausanne 2004-2006, n 6743).
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were separated into Swiss, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish nationals, those from the former Republic of Yugoslavia and from other European and other countries.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with Swiss nationals, German and French nationals presented a lower prevalence of overweight and obesity, whereas nationals from Italy, Spain, Portugal and the former Republic of Yugoslavia presented higher levels. Adjusting the SHS data for age, gender, education, smoking, leisure-time physical activity and survey year, a lower risk for overweight and obesity was found for German (OR = 0·80, 95 % CI 0·70, 0·92) and French (OR = 0·74, 95 % CI 0·61, 0·89) nationals, whereas higher risks were found for participants from Italy (OR = 1·45, 95 % CI 1·33, 1·58), Spain (OR = 1·36, 95 % CI 1·15, 1·61), Portugal (OR = 1·25, 95 % CI 1·06, 1·47) and the former Republic of Yugoslavia (OR = 1·98, 95 % CI 1·69, 2·32). Similar findings were observed in the CoLaus Study for Italian (OR = 1·63, 95 % CI 1·29, 2·06), Spanish (OR = 1·54, 95 % CI 1·17, 2·04) and Portuguese (OR = 1·49, 95 % CI 1·16, 1·91) participants and for those from the former Republic of Yugoslavia (OR = 5·34, 95 % CI 3·00, 9·50).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overweight and obesity are unevenly distributed among migrants in Switzerland. Migrants from Southern Europe and from the former Republic of Yugoslavia present higher prevalence rates. This suggests that preventive messages should be tailored to these specific populations.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (IUMSP), University Hospital (CHUV), Faculty of Biology and Medicine of Lausanne, Bugnon 17, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland. Pedro–Manuel.Marques–Vidal@chuv.ch
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Marques-Vidal
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vollenweider
authors.forename: Gérard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Waeber
authors.forename: Fred
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Paccaud
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology