title: The influence of area-level education on body mass index, waist circumference and obesity according to gender.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to analyze the association between area-level education and body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and obesity controlling for individual demographic and socioeconomic characteristics.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional population-based study was carried out with 1720 adults aged 20-59 in southern Brazil. We used multilevel modeling techniques to test whether area-level education was associated with BMI, WC and obesity regardless of individual-level characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We observed a significant between-groups variance for both BMI and WC. Among women, area-level education explained 27.6 and 30.0% of the between-groups variance of BMI and WC, respectively. In the fully adjusted model, the WC was 4.67 cm higher (p < 0.05) and the BMI was 1.12 kg/m(2) higher (p < 0.05) in the women residents of low education neighborhoods compared to the residents of high education areas. In the same group, the chance of central obesity and general obesity was, respectively, 2.05 (IC95% 1.19-3.52) and 1.85 (IC95% 1.04-3.29) times higher.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest that neighborhood characteristics play an important role in the distribution of obesity and must be addressed by policy makers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, 02115, USA, antonio.boing@ufsc.br.
authors.forename: Antonio Fernando
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Boing
authors.forename: S V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Subramanian
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011634:Public Health; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055105:Waist Circumference; D055815:Young Adult