Leila Yazdanpanah
Posters: J Diabetes Metab
This study was preformed to assess the prevalence of obesity, overweight, central obesity and their associated risk factors in an urban population in Ahvaz. This population- based cross-sectional study performed with random cluster sampling method in 6 health centers in Ahvaz .A questionnaire were full filled for each participant. From total 2575 participants, 1187 (46%) were men and 1388 (53.9%) women. Near 50% of the study participants were at educational levels of high school or higher; 82% of population was married and about one-third had positive family history of parental obesity. The total prevalence of obesity, overweight, and central obesity were 26.5%, 38.7% and 28.6% respectively. The rate of obesity in men was lower than women (p<0.001). The prevalence of obesity increased until the age of 60 years in both genders and decreased there after except for central obesity in women which increased without any lag. Low level of education, marriage, positive history of parental obesity and parity ≥ five were associated with increased odd of obesity (OR=2.14 (1.52,3.00), OR=2.4 (1.75, 2.99), OR=2.7 (1.71, 3.2) and 4.16 (2.17, 7.65) respectively). Obesity and overweight have high prevalence in south-west part of the country and its prevalence increases with increasing age. According to our findings, several risk factors such as low level of education, parity, female gender, marriage, familial history of obesity and elder age are associated with obesity. Hence there is an urgent need to public health prevention strategies to modify health behaviors in order to decrease obesity and its subsequent complication.
Leila Yazdanpanah is a MD, diabetes PhD student in Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences Ahvaz, Iran.She works in Health research institute, diabetes research center. She has published papers in reputed journals and is active in diabetes research, diabetes associations and diabetes clinics.
