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Trends in overweight by educational level in 33 low‐ and middle‐income countries: the role of parity, age at first birth and breastfeeding
Author(s) -
LopezArana S.,
Burdorf A.,
Avendano M.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
obesity reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.845
H-Index - 162
eISSN - 1467-789X
pISSN - 1467-7881
DOI - 10.1111/obr.12051
Subject(s) - overweight , breastfeeding , demography , parity (physics) , medicine , logistic regression , obesity , body mass index , gerontology , pediatrics , sociology , endocrinology , physics , particle physics
Summary This study examined trends in overweight among women of reproductive age by educational level in 33 low‐ and middle‐income countries, and estimated the contribution of parity, age at first birth and breastfeeding to these trends. We used repeated cross‐sectional Demographic Health Surveys of 255,828 women aged 25–49 years interviewed between 1992 and 2009. We applied logistic regression to model overweight (>25 kg m −2 ) as a function of education, reproductive variables and time period by country and region. The prevalence of overweight ranged from 3.4% in South and S outheast A sia to 73.7% in N orth A frica W est/ C entral A sia during the study period. The association between education and overweight differed across regions. In N orth A frica W est/ C entral A sia and L atin A merican, lower education was associated with higher overweight prevalence, while the inverse was true in S outh/ S outheast A sia and S ub‐ S aharan A frica. In all regions, there was a consistent pattern of increasing overweight trends across all educational groups. Older age at first birth, longer breastfeeding and lower parity were associated with less overweight, for differences by educational level in overweight prevalence and trends.