Trends of BMI and prevalence of overweight and obesity in Portugal (1995-2005): A systematic review

Abstract

Objective Locale-specific data on BMI and overweight/obesity are necessary to understand how the obesity epidemic is evolving in each setting. We aimed to describe the temporal trends of mean BMI and prevalences of overweight/obesity in studies that evaluated Portuguese adults and older people.Design Systematic review, conducted via a PubMed search up to January 2011 and independent reference screening and data extraction. Twenty-one eligible studies were identified. Data were extracted from the published reports and obtained from the authors of seven of the largest studies. Adjusted ecological estimates of mean BMI and prevalences of overweight/obesity were computed by linear regression.Results Between 1995 and 2005, when using data obtained from anthropometric measurements, overweight prevalence increased by 32 % and 35 % and obesity prevalence by 74 % and 13 % among women and men, respectively, while mean BMI did not vary meaningfully. When using self-reported information, mean BMI increased by 08 kg/m2 and 09 kg/m2, overweight prevalence by 35 % and 37 % and obesity prevalence by 58 % and 55 % among women and men, respectively. Results from the 20-year-old conscripts (1960-2000) showed a marked increase in these outcomes in the last decades.Conclusions Our results show an important increase in overweight/obesity in younger ages. The trends in the indicators derived from self-reported data suggest an increase in awareness of the importance of overweight/obesity among the population. © 2012 The Authors.