The risk of overweight and obesity in chronic diseases among Warsaw inhabitants measured by self-reported method.

Background: Obesity is well known cause of various diseases. However, there are only a few studies which enable to compare directly the magnitude of risk in different groups of chronic diseases.

Objectives: The aim of presented paper was to identify a magnitude of the risk of chronic diseases attributable to overweight and obesity on the basis of data on weight and height self-reported by respondents.

Material And Methods: The survey was conducted among 402 Warsaw inhabitants selected by non-random method. Overweight and obesity was measured by Body Mass Index (BMI) on the basis of the data of weight and height reported by respondents. According to WHO criteria the normal weight is defined as BMI 18.5 - 24.9 kg/m2, overweight as BMI 25.0 - 29.9 kg/m2, and obesity as BMI 30 kg/m2 or more. The following groups of chronic diseases were included: cancer, diabetes and other endocrine diseases, mental disorders, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, digestive diseases, arthritis and allergy disorder.

Results: Obesity measured by self-reported method was recognised as significant risk factor for diabetes (OR=9.6, CI: 2.0-152.8), respiratory diseases (OR=10.6, CI: 3,0-333,7), cardiovascular diseases (OR=5.2, CI: 1.9-108.3), arthritis (OR=6.3, CI: 2.4-266.7), digestive diseases (OR=3,8, CI: 1.3-83.6) and mental disorders (OR=5.8, CI: 1.5-29.1), while overweight significantly increased the risk of diabetes (OR=4.4, CI: 1.2-10.8), respiratory diseases (OR=3.2, CI: 1.4-22.2), cardiovascular diseases (OR=2.9, CI: 1.2-6.4) and arthritis (OR=3.0, CI: 1.1-9.6) CONCLUSIONS: Our findings showed that data on weight and height collected by survey method provide some information about the magnitude of the risk regarding particular groups of diseases attributable to overweight and obesity, nevertheless, underestimation of BMI calculated in this way should be taken into account.