Prevalence of overweight and obesity according to migrant status in Switzerland: are all people equal? Swiss Public Health Conference Nottwil, 9 September 2010 Mourade Djaouti 1, Fred Paccaud 1, Gérard Waeber 2, Peter Vollenweider 2 and Pedro Marques-Vidal 1 1 Institut Universitaire de Médecine Sociale et Préventive, Lausanne 2 Département de Médecine, CHUV, Lausanne
In Europe, it is estimated that 30 to 80% of adults are overweight or obese, with approximately 150 million individuals being obese. Several studies have shown that migrants present a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity than nationals, although this statement has been challenged. Switzerland has a large migrant community of over 1.6 million, representing over one fifth of the total population. Still, the prevalence of overweight and obesity according to migrant status or nationality of migrants in Switzerland has seldom been studied. WHO. The challenge of obesity in the WHO European Region and the strategies for response. Copenhagen, 2007. Dijkshoorn et al. Public Health 2008; 122(6): 625. Wändell et al. Eur J Epidemiol 2004; 19(11): 1005. Barcenas et al Obesity (Silver Spring) 2007; 15(4): 1043.
To assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity according to migrant status in Switzerland. To check whether these differences are related to differences in socio-economic status.
CoLaus Study (2003-6): N=6,743, 35-75 years, measured data. Swiss Health Surveys (1992-2007): N=63,766, adults, self-reported data. Nationalities considered: Swiss, Former Yugoslavia, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Due to small sample sizes, the other nationalities were grouped as Europe, other and Other. Turkish nationality was not considered due to small sample sizes. When a subject had double nationality, the Swiss or the first given nationality (if not Swiss) were considered. For the CoLaus study, the country of birth was considered as the nationality, while for the SHS, nationality was directly asked to the participants.
Swiss Health Surveys, women
CoLaus study, women
Swiss Health Surveys, men
CoLaus study, men
Multivariate analysis Obesity Overweight + obesity SHS (n=63,766) Colaus (n=6,743) SHS (n=63,766) Colaus (n=6,743) Swiss 1 (ref.) 1 (ref.) 1 (ref.) 1 (ref.) German 0.75 [0.57-0.98] 0.86 [0.45-1.64] 0.80 [0.70-0.92] 1.08 [0.70-1.67] Italian 1.28 [1.12-1.47] 1.03 [0.79-1.35] 1.45 [1.33-1.58] 1.63 [1.29-2.06] French 0.79 [0.56-1.12] 0.69 [0.49-0.96] 0.74 [0.61-0.89] 0.87 [0.71-1.07] Spanish 0.83 [0.60-1.15] 1.17 [0.84-1.62] 1.36 [1.15-1.61] 1.54 [1.17-2.04] Portuguese 0.68 [0.49-0.95] 1.01 [0.74-1.37] 1.25 [1.06-1.47] 1.49 [1.16-1.91] Ex-Yugoslavia 1.65 [1.29-2.11] 2.31 [1.41-3.77] 1.98 [1.69-2.32] 5.34 [3.00-9.50] Other, Europe 1.09 [0.89-1.33] 0.98 [0.74-1.29] 1.19 [1.06-1.33] 0.96 [0.79-1.17] Other, World 0.82 [0.60-1.12] 1.05 [0.79-1.40] 0.93 [0.79-1.09] 1.44 [1.17-1.77] Odds ratio and [95% confidence interval]. Adjusting for age, gender, education, smoking and leisure-time physical activity. For the SHS, a further adjustment on survey year was performed.
Comparison of the prevalences between migrants and their country of origin (measured data)
Comparison of the prevalences between migrants and their country of origin (reported data)
Migrants from Southern Europe and former Republic of Yugoslavia present higher prevalence rates for overweight and obesity. These differences cannot be explained by differences in socioeconomic status. Population-specific preventive measures?
Thank you for your attention Any questions? Discussion The CoLaus study was supported by research grants from GlaxoSmithKline, the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of Lausanne, Switzerland and the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant no: 33CSCO-122661). Pedro-Manuel.Marques-Vidal@chuv.ch