Prevalence of overweight and obesity in male adolescents in Austria between 1985 and 2000. A population based study.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the prevalence of overweight and obesity in young Austrian men, to describe a possible time trend during the observation period 1985-2000 and to define regional differences within the country. DESIGN: Epidemiological population based investigation (conscript health investigation) comparing aggregated data of four cross-sectional studies. SUBJECTS: Four cohorts of 18 year-old males (1985 n = 50,475, 1990 n = 47,463, 1995 n 39,275, 2000 n = 43,503), in total n = 180,716. METHODS: Measurements of height and weight were performed during the nationwide conscript health investigation. BMI was calculated and overweight was defined as BMI > or = 25.00 kg/m2 and obesity as BMI > or = 30.00 kg/m2. Besides height and weight data, information on place of residence of the young men was used for the study. Chi-squared and Student's t-test were calculated to test group differences with respect to their statistical significance. RESULTS: The prevalence of overweight increased from 10.9% to 15.5% and of obesity from 1.8% to 4.9% during the observation period. A significant regional trend was found with the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity in the Eastern part of Austria (p < 0.001). BMI was 22.12 +/- 0.34 kg/m2 (mean +/- SD) in 1985 and showed a significant increase (p < 0.001) during the study period to 22.71 +/- 0.25 kg/m2. CONCLUSION: Overweight and obesity increased remarkably in young males in Austria between the years 1985 and 2000. The steepest increase was found in the prevalence of obesity and in the Western part of Austria. A significant regional difference could be documented during the whole study period.