The Obesity Epidemic in the Veterans Health Administration: Prevalence Among Key Populations of Women and Men Veterans.
J Gen Intern Med
; 32(Suppl 1): 11-17, 2017 Apr.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28271422
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Most US adults are overweight or obese. Understanding differences in obesity prevalence across subpopulations could facilitate the development and dissemination of weight management services.OBJECTIVES:
To inform Veterans Health Administration (VHA) weight management initiatives, we describe obesity prevalence among subpopulations of VHA patients.DESIGN:
Cross-sectional descriptive analyses of fiscal year 2014 (FY2014) national VHA administrative and clinical data, stratified by gender. Differences ≥5% higher than the population mean were considered clinically significant.PARTICIPANTS:
Veteran VHA primary care patients with a valid weight within ±365 days of their first FY2014 primary care visit, and a valid height (98% of primary care patients). MAINMEASURES:
We used VHA vital signs data to ascertain height and weight and calculate body mass index, and VHA outpatient, inpatient, and fee basis data to identify sociodemographic- and comorbidity-based subpopulations. KEYRESULTS:
Among nearly five million primary care patients (347,112 women, 4,567,096 men), obesity prevalence was 41% (women 44%, men 41%), and overweight prevalence was 37% (women 31%, men 38%). Across the VHA's 140 facilities, obesity prevalence ranged from 28% to 49%. Among gender-stratified subpopulations, obesity prevalence was high among veterans under age 65 (age 18-44 women 40%, men 46%; age 45-64 women 49%, men 48%). Obesity prevalence varied across racial/ethnic and comorbidity subpopulations, with high obesity prevalence among black women (51%), women with schizophrenia (56%), and women and men with diabetes (68%, 56%).CONCLUSIONS:
Overweight and obesity are common among veterans served by the VHA. VHA's weight management initiatives have the potential to avert long-term morbidity arising from obesity-related conditions. High-risk groups-such as black women veterans, women veterans with schizophrenia, younger veterans, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native veterans-may require particular attention to ensure that systems improvement efforts at the population level do not inadvertently increase health disparities.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Saúde dos Veteranos
/
Obesidade
Tipo de estudo:
Observational_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Adult
/
Aged
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Female
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Humans
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Male
/
Middle aged
País/Região como assunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Gen Intern Med
Assunto da revista:
MEDICINA INTERNA
Ano de publicação:
2017
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos
País de publicação:
EEUU
/
ESTADOS UNIDOS
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ESTADOS UNIDOS DA AMERICA
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EUA
/
UNITED STATES
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
/
US
/
USA