Overweight and obesity and their determinants among men from Podlasie region in the years 1987-1998

Szpak A, Jamiołkowski J, Witana K

The goal of the study was to determine the frequencies of occurrence of obesity and overweight among men from Podlasie region of Poland, as well as nutritional and environmental factors related to these conditions.
During 9-year period (1987-1998), dietary habit of each of 556 men was evaluated three times using 24-hour consumption questionnaire. At the same time body mass index (BMI) was also calculated.
BMI increased significantly from 26.2 kg/m2  to 27.6 kg/m2 during discussed period, while percentage of overweight grew up from 62.7% to 73.2% and percentage of obesity rose from 14.5% to 22.5%. Executed multiple regression analysis revealed a variety of predictors of obesity and overweight. Among nutritional factors, the increase of energy and carbohydrates (especially saccharose) in diet were the reasons of increasing BMI. Considering psychological, sociological and economical features, multi-shift work provoked increase of BMI, while decrease of BMI was induced by smoking.
Observed increase of spread of overweight and obesity among men, had its nutritional and environmental reasons.