Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-7jkgd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-17T13:47:53.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Demography of obesity

from Section 1 - Trends and determinants of obesity in women of reproductive age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2012

By
Maria Regina Torloni ,
Ana Pilar Betrán  and
Mario Merialdi
Edited by
Matthew W. Gillman  and
Lucilla Poston
Matthew W. Gillman
Affiliation:
Harvard Medical School
Lucilla Poston
Affiliation:
King's College London
Get access

Summary

Introduction

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health [1]. Overweight and obesity are usually diagnosed when weight normalized for height, or body mass index (BMI: weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters, kg/m2), exceeds a defined threshold. In 1995, the WHO proposed a BMI classification for adults as a form of diagnosing excess adiposity [2]. According to this classification, individuals are considered overweight when their BMI is ≥25; those between 25 and 29.9 are designated as pre-obese and they are classified as obese when their BMI reaches or exceeds 30kg/m2 (Table 1.1). Many authors also use the term “overweight” to designate pre-obese individuals (BMI 25–29.9), which gives rise to some confusion, unless the specific range of BMI is specified. Although BMI does not directly measure the percentage of body fat, it offers a more accurate assessment of excess adiposity than weight alone. Due to its simplicity, BMI categorization is the preferred obesity measurement for clinicians, public health specialists, and researchers, and is currently used worldwide to track adult overweight and obesity prevalence [3].

Type
Chapter
Information
Maternal Obesity , pp. 1 - 7
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

World Health Organization. Division of Noncommunicable Diseases Obesity: Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic Report of a WHO consultation on obesity 2000
World Health Organization Physical Status: the Use and Interpretation of Anthropometry (Geneva, Switzerland World Health Organization 1995
World Health Organization Global Database on Body Mass Index: an Interactive Surveillance Tool for Monitoring Nutrition Transition 2011 www.who.int/bmi/index.jsp
WHO Expert Consultation body-mass index for Asian populations and its implications for policy and intervention strategies Lancet 2004 363 157 Google Scholar
Allison, D B Fontaine, K R Manson, J E Stevens, J Van Itallie, T B Annual deaths attributable to obesity in the United States JAMA 1999 282 1530 Google Scholar
Calle, E E Kaaks, R. Overweight, obesity and cancer: epidemiological evidence and proposed mechanisms Nat Rev Cancer 2004 4 579 Google Scholar
Friedman, M A Brownell, K D Psychological correlates of obesity: moving to the next research generation Psychol Bull 1995 117 3 Google Scholar
Kenchaiah, S Evans, J C Levy, D Wilson, P W Benjamin, E J Obesity and the risk of heart failure N Engl J Med 2002 347 305 Google Scholar
Krauss, R M Winston, M Fletcher, B J Grundy, S M Obesity: impact on cardiovascular disease Circulation 1998 98 1472 Google Scholar
Allison, D B Zannolli, R Narayan, K M The direct health care costs of obesity in the United States Am J Public Health 1999 89 1194 Google Scholar
Kortt, M A Langley, P C Cox, E R A review of cost-of-illness studies on obesity Clin Ther 1998 20 772 Google Scholar
Popkin, B M Horton, S Kim, S Mahal, A Shuigao, J Trends in diet, nutritional status, and diet-related noncommunicable diseases in China and India: the economic costs of the nutrition transition Nutr Rev 2001 59 379 Google Scholar
Popkin, B M Will China’s nutrition transition overwhelm its health care system and slow economic growth? Health Aff (Millwood) 2008 27 1064 Google Scholar
World Health Organization Obesity and Overweight. Fact sheet No. 311 www 2012
World Health Organization Diet, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases Geneva, Switzerland World Health Organization 2003
Haslam, D W James, W P Obesity Lancet 2005 366 1197 Google Scholar
Popkin, B M Recent dynamics suggest selected countries catching up to US obesity Am J Clin Nutr 2010 91 284S Google Scholar
Gu, D Reynolds, K Wu, X Chen, J Duan, X Prevalence of the metabolic syndrome and overweight among adults in China Lancet 2005 365 1398 Google Scholar
Reddy, K S Prabhakaran, D Shah, P Shah, B Differences in body mass index and waist: hip ratios in North Indian rural and urban populations Obes Rev 2002 3 197 Google Scholar
Caballero, B The global epidemic of obesity: an overview Epidemiol Rev 2007 29 1 Google Scholar
Mendez, M A Monteiro, C A Popkin, B M Overweight exceeds underweight among women in most developing countries Am J Clin Nutr 2005 81 714 Google Scholar
Popkin, B M The nutrition transition in low-income countries: an emerging crisis Nutr Rev 1994 52 285 Google Scholar
Monteiro, C A Moura, E C Conde, W L Popkin, B M Socioeconomic status and obesity in adult populations of developing countries: a review Bull World Health Organ 2004 82 940 Google Scholar
Monteiro, C A Conde, W L Popkin, B M The burden of disease from undernutrition and overnutrition in countries undergoing rapid nutrition transition: a view from Brazil Am J Public Health 2004 94 433 Google Scholar
Popkin, B M The nutrition transition: an overview of world patterns of change Nutr Rev 2004 62 S140 Google Scholar
Caballero, B A nutrition paradox – underweight and obesity in developing countries N Engl J Med 2005 352 1514 Google Scholar
Doak, C M Adair, L S Bentley, M Monteiro, C Popkin, B M The dual burden household and the nutrition transition paradox Int J Obes (Lond) 2005 29 129 Google Scholar
Sebire, N J Jolly, M Harris, J P Wadsworth, J Joffe, M Maternal obesity and pregnancy outcome: a study of 287,213 pregnancies in London Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2001 25 1175 Google Scholar
Siega-Riz, A M Laraia, B The implications of maternal overweight and obesity on the course of pregnancy and birth outcomes Matern Child Health J 2006 10 S153 Google Scholar
Yu, C K Teoh, T G Robinson, S Obesity in pregnancy BJOG 2006 113 1117 Google Scholar
Torloni, M R Betrán, A P Horta, B L Nakamura, M U Atallah, A N Prepregnancy BMI and the risk of gestational diabetes: a systematic review of the literature with meta-analysis Obes Rev 2009 10 194 Google Scholar
Torloni, M R Betrán, A P Daher, S Widmer, M Dolan, S M Maternal BMI and preterm birth: a systematic review of the literature with meta-analysis J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med 2009 22 957 Google Scholar
Parsons, T J Power, C Logan, S Summerbell, C D Childhood predictors of adult obesity: a systematic review Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1999 23 S1 Google Scholar
Martorell, R Khan, L K Hughes, M L Grummer-Strawn, L M Obesity in women from developing countries Eur J Clin Nutr 2000 54 247 Google Scholar
Monteiro, C A Conde, W L Lu, B Popkin, B M Obesity and inequities in health in the developing world Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2004 28 1181 Google Scholar
Jones-Smith, J C Gordon-Larsen, P Siddiqi, A Popkin, B M Cross-national comparisons of time trends in overweight inequality by socioeconomic status among women using repeated cross-sectional surveys from 37 developing countries 1989 Am J Epidemiol 173 667 Google Scholar
Molarius, A Seidell, J C Sans, S Tuomilehto, J Kuulasmaa, K Educational level, relative body weight, and changes in their association over 10 years: an international perspective from the WHO MONICA Project Am J Public Health 2000 90 1260 Google Scholar
Wilkinson, R Pickett, K. Wilkinson, R Pickett, K The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better London, England Penguin Books Ltd 2009
Measure, DHS www.measuredhs.com/

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×