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- Lissner, Lauren, 1956, et al.
(author)
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Monitoring the Obesity Epidemic into the 21st Century - Weighing the Evidence.
- 2013
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In: Obesity facts. - : S. Karger AG. - 1662-4033 .- 1662-4025. ; 6:6, s. 561-565
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- According to recent literature the obesity epidemic in adults and particularly in children seems to have stabilized or receded since the end of the 20th century [1,2]. Many of the encouraging trends toward stabilization have occurred simultaneously in different parts of the world. However, there may be some biases in the data being reported that could explain these trends, to which we will draw attention in the sections below. Besides statistical biases and distortions in the data itself, there may be interpretation biases of a less statistical nature. This paper is not intended to systematically review all publications on the course of the epidemic or discuss study-specific biases in detail, but rather intends to highlight the most relevant sources of bias while offering selected examples of such biases from the literature. We will first review several classic sources of bias in survey data describing secular trends in obesity, which have been frequently discussed in terms of how they might affect conclusions regarding the course of the obesity epidemic. In addition, we will describe sources of bias in what we are looking at and how we are looking at it, which may distort conclusions regarding the obesity epidemic.
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2. |
- Bogers, Rik P., et al.
(author)
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Association of overweight with increased risk of coronary heart disease partly independent of blood pressure and cholesterol levels - A meta-analysis of 21 cohort studies including more than 300,000 persons
- 2007
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In: Archives of Internal Medicine. - 0003-9926. ; 167:16, s. 1720-1728
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: The extent to which moderate overweight (body mass index [BMI], 25.0-29.9 [calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared]) and obesity ( BMI, >= 30.0) are associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) through adverse effects on blood pressure and cholesterol levels is unclear, as is the risk of CHD that remains after these mediating effects are considered. Methods: Relative risks (RRs) of CHD associated with moderate overweight and obesity with and without adjustment for blood pressure and cholesterol concentrations were calculated by the members of a collaboration of prospective cohort studies of healthy, mainly white persons and pooled by means of random-effects models (RRs for categories of BMI in 14 cohorts and for continuous BMI in 21 cohorts; total N=302296). Results: A total of 18 000 CHD events occurred during follow-up. The age-, sex-, physical activity-, and smoking-adjusted RRs (95% confidence intervals) for moderate overweight and obesity compared with normal weight were 1.32 (1.24-1.40) and 1.81 (1.56-2.10), respectively. Additional adjustment for blood pressure and cholesterol levels reduced the RR to 1.17 (1.11-1.23) for moderate overweight and to 1.49 (1.32-1.67) for obesity. The RR associated with a 5-unit BMI increment was 1.29 (1.22-.35) before and 1.16 (1.11-1.21) after adjustment for blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Conclusions: Adverse effects of overweight on blood pressure and cholesterol levels could account for about 45% of the increased risk of CHD. Even for moderate overweight, there is a significant increased risk of CHD independent of these traditional risk factors, although confounding (eg, by dietary factors) cannot be completely ruled out.
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