Prevalence of pre-obesity and obesity in urban adult Mexicans in comparison with other large surveys

Objective: 1. To estimate the prevalence of pre-obesity and obesity in a 19 92 to 1993 national survey of the Mexican urban adult population. 2. To com pare our findings with other national surveys and with data for Mexican Ame ricans. Research Methods and Procedures: The national representative sample of the Mexican urban adult population included 8462 women and 5929 men aged 20 to 69 years from 417 towns of >2500 people. Body mass index (BMI), calculated from measured weight and height, was classified using the World Health Orga nization categories of underweight (BMI < 18.5 kg/m(2)), normal weight (BMI 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m(2)), pre-obesity (PreOB = BMI 25 to 29.9 kg/m(2)) and ob esity (OB = BMI 30+ kg/m(2)). Estimates for Mexican Americans were calculat ed from U.S. survey data. Results: Overall, 38% of the Mexican urban adult population were classified as pre-obese and 21% as obese. Men had a higher prevalence of pre-obesity than women did at all ages, but women had higher values of obesity. Both pr e-obesity and obesity increased with age up to the age range brackets of 40 to 49 or 50 to 59 years for both men and women. Both pre-obesity and obesi ty prevalence estimates were remarkably similar to data for Mexican America ns from 1982 through 1984. Comparison with other large surveys showed that countries differed more in the prevalence of obesity than of pre-obesity, l eading to differences in the PreOB/OB ratio, and that countries also differ ed in the gender ratio (female/male) for both pre-obesity and obesity. Discussion: Pre-obesity and obesity were high in our population and increas ed with age. Our approach of characterizing large surveys by PreOB/OB and g ender ratios appeared promising.