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Kongress Medizin und Gesellschaft 2007

17. bis 21.09.2007, Augsburg

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Widening of a social gradient in obesity risk? German National Health Surveys 1990 and 1998

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  • Andrea Icks - Institute of Biometrics and Epidemiology, German Diabetes Center, Leibniz Institute, at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf
  • Susanne Moebus - Institute of Medical Informatics, Biometry, and Epidemiology, University Clinics Essen, Essen
  • Astrid Feuersenger - Institute of Medical Informatics, Biometry, and Epidemiology, University Clinics Essen, Essen
  • Burkhard Haastert - nstitute of Biometrics and Epidemiology, German Diabetes Center, Leibniz Institute, at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf
  • Karl-Heinz Jöckel - Institute of Medical Informatics, Biometry, and Epidemiology, University Clinics Essen, Essen
  • Andreas Mielck - Institute of Health Economics and Health Care Management, GSF National Research Centre for Environment and Health,, Neuherberg
  • Guido Giani - nstitute of Biometrics and Epidemiology, German Diabetes Center, Leibniz Institute, at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf

Kongress Medizin und Gesellschaft 2007. Augsburg, 17.-21.09.2007. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2007. Doc07gmds174

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/gmds2007/07gmds174.shtml

Published: September 6, 2007

© 2007 Icks et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Objective: Whether differences in obesity prevalences across social status levels have widened remains controversial.

Material and Methods: We used German national health surveys (1990-92 and 1998, n= 7,466 and 5,583, age 25-69 years) to estimate obesity prevalences and its associations with calendar year, age (25-39, 40-60, 60-69), and educational level (low, middle, high), as well as an interaction term (year*educational level) in men and women. We used multiple regression models, considering the sample design.

Results: Obesity prevalence in 1990 and 1998 was 18.1 (95% CI 16.5-19.7) and 19.9 (18.2-21.6) in men and 20.9 (19.2-22.6) and 21.6 (19.3-23.7) in women, with statistically significantly higher prevalences in higher age and lower education. A statistically significant increase of obesity prevalence was present only in men. The increase seems to be highest in high educated educated subjects. However, interaction was not statistically significant, except in middle compared to high educated men (OR 0.67; 0.47-0.96).

Conclusions: Obesity prevalence increased only moderately in Germany between 1990-92 and 1998. There was a tendency of reduction of the social gradient in obesity instead of a widening.