TRENDS IN THE PREVALENCE OF OBESITY AMONG BELGIAN MEN AT WORK, 1977-1992

OBJECTIVE: To assess trends in average body mass index (BMI) and the p revalence of:obesity between 1977 and 1992, in middle-aged Belgian men at work, SUBJECTS: A subsample of men at work, aged 40-54y extracted from the base-line data from four independent prospective studies, eac h representing a period (Physical Fitness Study (1977-1978), Belgian I nteruniversity Research on Nutrition and Health (BIRNH) (1979-1984), M ultinational Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular D iseases (MONICA) (1986-1991) and ORCA [1992-1993]). DESIGN: Linear reg ression of the average body mass index (kg/m(2)) and logistic regressi on of the prevalence of obesity (BMI greater than or equal to 30 kg/m( 2)), independent variables taken into account In multivariate analysis were: age, educational level, marital status and region, RESULTS: In this subsample of Belgian men at work, aged 40-54y, prevalence of obes ity increased from 9.2% in 1977-1978 to 14.5% in 1992-1993. This rise was present in each five-year age group, in both regions and in all ed ucational groups, bur strongest in the lowest educated. After adjustme nt Sop sociodemographic covariables, it was estimated that with regard to 1977-1978, the proportion of men with a BMI greater than or equal to 38 kg/m(2) doubled over the 15-year period (odds ratio OR (95% conf idence intervals, 95% CI)): 1.98 (1.40; 2.80). CONCLUSION: Keeping ire mind that the trends have been calculated from data from four differe nt studies, presenting some shortcomings, prevalence of obesity has in creased between 1977-1992 in men aged 40-54 y at work. This rise is pa rticularly pronounced in the lower educated groups.