Abstract

MANZUR, Fernando; ALVEAR S, Ciro  and  ALAYON, Alicia. Epidemiological profile of overweight and obesity and its main comorbidities in the city of Cartagena de Indias. Rev. Colom. Cardiol. [online]. 2009, vol.16, n.5, pp.194-200. ISSN 0120-5633.

Introduction: obesity is a complex multifactorial condition with genetic and environmental components. According to the predispositions in individuals and populations, it triggers several abnormalities. The most frequent repercussions of overweight and obesity are associated with the appearance of different chronic diseases, among those cardiovascular disease, diabetes and musculoskeletal diseases. It has been proved that the risk of the appearance of these chronic diseases in the population increases progressively from a body mass index of 21. According to recent WHO data, in the last years there has been an increase in the world population overweight incidence reaching 1,600 millions and in obesity, that reached 400 millions in 2005. Besides, it is expected that these numbers may rise reachind 2,300 millions and 700 millions, respectively. Objective: to recognize the epidemiological profile of overweight and obesity and assess the relationship with its main comorbidities such as arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus and some dyslipidemias in the Cartagena de Indias adult population. Methods: analitical cross-sectional study. 749 people were assessed by stratified simple random format in order to obtain the sociodemographic and anthropometric variables. Assessment of glycemia levels was performed after fasting. Total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides were also determined. Results: a high prevalence of overweight and obesity was shown, making up 62% of the population (41% overweight and 21% obesity). Prevalence of abdominal obesity was determined according to ATP III criteria, detecting obesity in 41,8%. Among these, 39,3% had arterial hypertension and some kind of dyslipidemia and 11.2% had diabetes mellitus type II. Conclusions: these results showed that overweight, obesity and its associated comorbidities such as hypertension, dyslipidemia and diabetes mellitus type 2, are factors that require an immediate intervention of the health authorities in order to reduce its negative impact on the adult population of Cartagena de Indias, especially in those arising from increased morbidity and mortality due to cardiovascular disease.

Keywords : obesity; overweight; comorbidity; body mass index; abdominal fat.

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