Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in Italy (2001–2008): Is There a Rising Obesity Epidemic?

Micciolo, Rocco; Di Francesco, Vincenzo; Fantin, Francesco; Canal, Luisa; Harris, Tamara B.; Bosello, Ottavio; Zamboni, Mauro

doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2010.01.006

« Previous Next »Annals of Epidemiology
Volume 20, Issue 4 , Pages 258-264, April 2010

Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in Italy (2001–2008): Is There a Rising Obesity Epidemic?

Rocco Micciolo, MD
- Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
- Address correspondence to: Rocco Micciolo, Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Via Verdi, 26, 38122 Trento, Italy. Tel. : +39 461 282913; Fax: +39 461 281348.
Vincenzo Di Francesco, MD
- Department of Medical and Surgical Science, Geriatric Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
Francesco Fantin, MD
- Department of Medical and Surgical Science, Geriatric Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
Luisa Canal, PhD
- Department of Cognitive and Education Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
Tamara B. Harris, MD
- Office of Geriatric Epidemiology Demography and Biometry Program, National Institute of Aging, Bethesda, MD
Ottavio Bosello, MD
- Department of Medical and Surgical Science, Geriatric Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
Mauro Zamboni, MD
- Department of Medical and Surgical Science, Geriatric Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

Received 18 August 2009; accepted 3 January 2010. published online 12 February 2010.

Purpose

To provide national, population-based estimates of the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the Italian population.

Methods

Prevalence estimates of overweight and obesity were calculated in seven waves (2001–2008) of the cross-sectional Multipurpose Household Survey organized by the Italian National Institute of Statistics, which are representative of the general adult Italian population. Sampling weights were used to estimate prevalence figures as well as their standard errors. Mean-difference plot was used to evaluate changes in the distribution of body mass index across sex and age categories.

Results

Almost half of Italian men and about 1 of 3 Italian women are overweight or obese. Between 2001 and 2008 the age-standardized prevalence of overweight (obesity) increased 1.4% (1.9%) in men and 0.4% (0.5%) in women. Mean-difference plots showed an upward shift for body mass index distribution with an increasing skewness.

Conclusions

The obesity epidemic is one of the major issues in United States and other developed countries. However, if for “epidemic” we mean that in Italy obesity is steadily increasing, then our data give little support to this interpretation. In fact, trends observed between 1983 and 2008 suggest that the rates of changes in the prevalence of overweight and/or obesity are not increasing.

Key Words: Body Mass Index, Obesity, Overweight, Prevalence

Selected Abbreviations and Acronyms: MHS, Multipurpose Household Survey, BMI, body mass index