Differing trends in the association between obesity and self-reported health in Portugal and Switzerland. Data from national health surveys 1992–2007

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Fred Paccaud¹  Pedro Marques-Vidal¹  Paula Ravasco² 

[1] Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (IUMSP), CHUV and Faculty of biology and medicine, Lausanne, Switzerland;Unidade de Nutrição e Metabolismo, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal;

关键词: Obesity;    Self-rated health;    Population survey;    Trends;    Portugal;    Switzerland;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-12-588

 received in 2012-01-25, accepted in 2012-06-05,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe escalating prevalence of obesity might prompt obese subjects to consider themselves as normal, as this condition is gradually becoming as frequent as normal weight. In this study, we aimed to assess the trends in the associations between obesity and self-rated health in two countries.MethodsData from the Portuguese (years 1995–6, 1998–6 and 2005–6) and Swiss (1992–3, 1997, 2002 and 2007) National Health Surveys were used, corresponding to more than 130,000 adults (64,793 for Portugal and 65,829 for Switzerland). Body mass index and self-rated health were derived from self-reported data.ResultsObesity levels were higher in Portugal (17.5% in 2005–6 vs. 8.9% in 2007 in Switzerland, p < 0.001) and increased in both countries. The prevalence of participants rating their health as “bad” or “very bad” was higher in Portugal than in Switzerland (21.8% in 2005–6 vs 3.9% in 2007, p < 0.001). In both countries, obese participants rated more frequently their health as “bad” or “very bad” than participants with regular weight. In Switzerland, the prevalence of “bad” or “very bad” rates among obese participants, increased from 6.5% in 1992–3 to 9.8% in 2007, while in Portugal it decreased from 41.3% to 32.3%. After multivariate adjustment, the odds ratio (OR) of stating one self’s health as “bad” or “very bad” among obese relative to normal weight participants, almost doubled in Switzerland: from 1.38 (95% confidence interval, CI: 1.01–1.87) in 1992–3 to 2.64 (95% CI: 2.14–3.26) in 2007, and similar findings were obtained after sample weighting. Conversely, no such trend was found in Portugal: 1.35 (95% CI: 1.23–1.48) in 1995–6 and 1.52 (95% CI: 1.37–1.70) in 2005–6.ConclusionObesity is increasing in Switzerland and Portugal. Obesity is increasingly associated with poorer self-health ratings in Switzerland but not in Portugal.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Marques-Vidal et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012