Obesity Prevalence and Associated Socio-Demographic Characteristics and Health Behaviors in Russia and Norway

• Associations between obesity and socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics vary between populations. Exploring such differences should throw light on factors related to obesity. We examined associations between general obesity (GO, defined by body mass index) and abdominal obesity (AO, defined by waist-to-hip ratio) and sex, age, socio-economic characteristics (education, financial situation, marital status), smoking and alcohol consumption in women and men aged 40-69 years from the Know Your Heart study (KYH, Russia, N = 4121, 2015-2018) and the seventh Tromso Study (Tromso7, Norway, N = 17,646, 2015-2016). Age-standardized prevalence of GO and AO was higher in KYH compared to Tromso7 women (36.7 vs. 22.0% and 44.2 vs. 18.4%, respectively) and similar among men (26.0 vs. 25.7% and 74.8 vs. 72.2%, respectively). The positive association of age with GO and AO was stronger in KYH vs. Tromso7 women and for AO it was stronger in men in Tromso7 vs. KYH. Associations between GO and socio-economic characteristics were similar in KYH and Tromso7, except for a stronger association with living with spouse/partner in KYH men. Smoking had a positive association with AO in men in Tromso7 and in women in both studies. Frequent drinking was negatively associated with GO and AO in Tromso7 participants and positively associated with GO in KYH men. We found similar obesity prevalence in Russian and Norwegian men but higher obesity prevalence in Russian compared to Norwegian women. Other results suggest that the stronger association of obesity with age in Russian women is the major driver of the higher obesity prevalence among them compared to women in Norway.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Cancer och onkologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Cancer and Oncology (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

obesity

waist-to-hip ratio

cross-sectional study

socio-demographic

factors

smoking

alcohol

sex

Russia

Norway

body-mass index

reported alcohol-consumption

population-based cohort

life-style

socioeconomic-status

waist circumference

abdominal

obesity

national-health

normal-weight

risk-factors

Environmental Sciences & Ecology

Public

Environmental & Occupational

Health

obesity

Research on Citizen Centered Health, University of Skövde (Reacch US)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)