Overweight mainly a problem among the richest women in countries with low and middle income

PharmaLive.com (23 November 2010) - a new study from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) finds that the body high mass (IMC) in developing countries remains primarily a problem of the rich. The results suggest that the development of overweight and obesity among the poor who already took place in rich countries is not yet arrived in developing countries.

The study appears in the advance of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Online Edition and will appear in the next printed edition.

"Previous research on the increase in overweight and the burden of obesity in developing countries have assumed that the burden is shared by everyone in these countries;" "However, we found that social reasons weight continue to closely resemble the unequal distribution of income and other resources," said S V Subramanian, lead author of the paper and an associate professor in the Department of the company, human development and health to the HSPH.

Subramanian and colleagues analyzed data from representative samples nationally 538,140 women aged 15 to 49 learned surveys on the health of the population and carried out in 54 low and middle-income countries between 1994 and 2008. They examined BMI, education, household wealth, and the gross domestic product per capita (pcGDP) of the country of origin of the women.The researchers found an association between BMI and richness in all countries except Moldova and of worldwide, an increase of 25% on wealth index measuring Kazakhstan.À has been associated with an increase of 54% of BMI and an increase of 33% overweight. Similar patterns were observed in urban and rural areas in the country. There is no strong association between weight and education or pcGDP.

Researchers theorize that these results could be due to a number of factors, including women in higher income groups are more likely to have diets rich in animal fat and low-income women. Also, cultural standards in developing countries can promote forms of fat women's richest. Richest women are also less likely to engage in regular physical working poor women.

IMC prevalence and growing overweight are important in many countries public health concerns, their allocation between socioeconomic groups must make a central consideration in the development of policies to improve the nutritional status of populations in the developing countries, according to researchers.

"Our findings have serious implications," said Subramanian. "If obesity is mainly concentrated in the rich, valuable public resources should be targeted to reduce overweight or should be devoted to policies aimed at improving the nutritional outcomes among the poor?"He added:"the fact that the burden of the overweight and underweight is concentrated largely in two distinct socio-economic groups actually a good thing from the point of view policy, the challenge is how to find a balance between the emphasis in terms of priorities".

No direct funding source supported this study.Macro International Inc. has provided access to the population and health surveys.Subramanian is supported by a grant from the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute career development.

Editor's note: this article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Source of the story:

The story above is reproduced (with drafting adaptations by staff at PharmaLive.com) materials provided by Harvard School of Public Health, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Reference of the review:

S. Subramanian, j. M. Perkins, e. Ozaltin, g. Davey Smith.Weight of nations: a socio-economic analysis of women in countries with low and middle income.American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2010; DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.110.004820

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited for this.

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