Year: 2001
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Six cross-sectional population surveys have been carried out at five-year intervals starting in 1972 in eastern Finland.Since then, weight and height of Finnish adults have also been monitored regularly.The objective of the present study was to assess trends in body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and obesity among adults in Finland during the last few decades.A further aim was to identify possible risk groups for increasing obesity by investigating the associations of BMI and obesity with age, education, occupation and lifestyle factors.This study is part of the national FINRISK studies carried out between 1972 and 1997.These surveys covered two eastern regions in 1972 and 1977 but were expanded to include a third region in southwestern Finland in 1982.For each survey, an independent random sample from the national population register was drawn of subjects aged 25 to 64 years.Altogether 45 777 randomly selected men and women participated in the six surveys.Weight, height, and waist and hip circumferences of subjects were measured, and data on occupation and education level as well as lifestyle factors were collected by self-administered questionnaires.The mean BMI increased in both genders.In men, the upward trend was most prominent in the oldest age group (55-64 years), but was also found in the youngest age group (25-34 years), whereas in women, the upward trend was greatest in the youngest age group.A BMI increase with age was more prominent in women than in men and was very similar in all birth cohorts.In men, the BMI increase with age varied across cohorts such that the younger the cohort, the greater the BMI increase with age.Independently of changes in BMI, abdominal obesity increased both in men and women during the ten-year period, especially among subjects aged 45 years or older.In men, the strongest upward trend in WHR occurred in the early 1990s, whereas in women, these trends continued steadily throughout the 1990s.
Author: Marjaana Lahti‐Koski
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1482043074