© 2007 American Public Health Association DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2006.099630
Carlos A. Monteiro and Wolney L. Conde are with the Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the Center for Epidemiological Studies in Health and Nutrition, Sao Paulo. Barry M. Popkin is with the Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, and the Carolina Population Center, Chapel Hill. Correspondence: Correspondence should be sent to Carlos A. Monteiro, MD, PhD, Ave. Dr. Arnaldo 715, Sao Paulo 01246-904, Brazil (e-mail: carlosam{at}usp.br).
Objectives. We sought to update income-specific secular trends in obesity in Brazil to assess the hypothesis that the disease burden is shifting toward the poor. Methods. We compared overall and income-specific obesity prevalence rates estimated for Brazilian men and women from national surveys conducted in 1975, 1989, and 2003. We calculated age-adjusted prevalence ratios to assess time trends. Results. In the first 14-year period examined (1975–1989), obesity rates among men and women increased by 92% and 63%, respectively, and increases were relatively higher among individuals in lower income groups. In the second 14-year period (1989–2003), there were further increases in obesity among men, and again increases were larger among the poor. In this second period, the obesity rate remained virtually stable in the overall female population, but it increased by 26% among women in the 2 lower income quintiles and decreased by 10% among women in the 3 higher income quintiles. Conclusions. The burden of obesity is shifting toward the poor and can no longer be considered a disease of the socioeconomic elite. Policymakers need to design policy and programs that reach all members of society, but especially the poor.
A landmark review of cross-sectional studies on socioeconomic status (SES) and obesity that had been published before 1989 concluded that obesity was essentially a disease of the socioeconomic elite in developing societies, in contrast to the situation in developed societies, where obesity was more common among the poor than among the rich.1 However, a review of recent studies revealed a much more complex picture of the relationship between SES and obesity in the developing world.2 Most new studies still indicate a positive association between high SES and obesity among males from developing countries, although there are indications that as a countrys gross national product increases, lower-SES groups tend to lose their protection against obesity. Among women, the predominant feature of the newer studies conducted in developing countries is an inverse relationship between high SES and obesity, with indications that the relative excess of obesity among lower SES groups tends to increase with increases in a countrys gross national product. In conjunction with this finding, a joint analysis of national cross-sectional data gathered on women of reproductive ages from 37 developing countries showed that the association between obesity and SES is substantially modified by a countrys gross national product. A gross national product of $2500 per capita has been shown to be the trigger level at which obesity begins to be more common among the poor than among the rich.3 Although recent studies indicate that in the developing world the burden of obesity could be shifting toward the poor, this hypothesis can be directly tested only through comparisons of time trends in obesity in different socioeconomic groups of a single population. Brazil is one of the few developing countries that has conducted repeated cross-sectional, population-based surveys enabling comparisons of secular changes in obesity patterns among different socioeconomic groups. An earlier study focusing on national anthropometric surveys conducted in Brazil in 1974–1975 and 1989 revealed increasing obesity prevalence rates among both men and women in all income groups, with relatively higher increases among women in low-income groups.4 A subsequent study that included data from a subnational survey conducted in 1996–1997 identified a clear shift in obesity from high-income women toward low-income women living in urban areas. This shift resulted from continuous increases in obesity among the urban poor and unprecedented declines among high-income groups.5,6 The existence of a third national anthropometric survey, conducted in 2002–2003 with a random sample of more than 48000 Brazilian households, allows secular trends in obesity to be updated with a particular emphasis on differences between low- and high-income families. Our primary goal in this study was to update income-specific trends in obesity in Brazil.
Study Populations and Sampling The data analyzed in this study were derived from 3 national surveys undertaken in Brazil from (1) August 1974 to August 1975 ("Estudo Nacional sobre Despesa Familiar" [National Study on Family Expenditures]), (2) June to September 1989 ("Pesquisa Nacional sobre Saúde e Nutrição" [National Survey on Health and Nutrition]), and (3) July 2002 to June 2003 ("Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares" [National Household Budget Survey]). The Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, the federal agency in charge of national statistics in Brazil, used similar multistage, stratified clustering sampling procedures in conducting the 3 surveys.5,7 The 3 surveys (hereafter referred as the 1975, 1989, and 2003 surveys) sampled 53 311, 14 458, and 48 470 households, respectively. Although anthropometric data were collected for all household members in each of the surveys, we restricted our analyses to the samples of adults aged 20 years or older. The numbers of individuals sampled in this age group, which excluded pregnant women, were 124 274 in 1975, 32 651 in 1989, and 106 809 in 2003. Item nonresponse rates for weight or height measurements (or both) were 2.7% in 1975, 3.1% in 1989, and 7.9% in 2003; there were no major differences in nonresponse across socioeconomic groups. Another 0.4% of individuals in 1975, 0.3% in 1989, and 0.4% in 2003 were excluded from our analyses because their weight or height measurements were too low or too high (below or above 5 z scores from the gender-specific Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2000 reference distribution at age 20 years).8 Fewer than 3% of individuals were missing data for family income in all of the surveys; no individuals were missing data on gender or age.
Data Collection
Data Analysis
As a means of assessing the direction, intensity, and statistical significance of trends in obesity in the 2 overall 14-year periods covered by the 3 surveys (1975–1989 and 1989–2003), we used Poisson regression with robust variance to calculate age-adjusted prevalence ratios.9 We calculated the Mantel–Haenszel
We ran gender-specific Poisson regression models on obesity status when we found statistically significant heterogeneity across income categories. Explanatory variables included in these models were age (20–24, 25–29, 30–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55–64,
Sample characteristics and BMI distributions for the 1975, 1989, and 2003 surveys are shown in Table 1
Tables 2
Trends in obesity risk differed according to family income in both periods assessed and among both men and women (P< .001 for the null hypothesis of homogeneity of trends across income categories). Among men, obesity risk increased more among those from lower-income quintiles than among those from higher-income quintiles, with prevalence ratios of 3.19 versus 1.53 in the first period and 2.50 versus 1.45 in the second period. Obesity also tended to increase more among women in lower-income quintile than among women in higher-income quintiles during the earlier period. In the more recent period, increases in obesity prevalence rates were restricted to women from the 2 lower-income quintiles (for these quintiles combined, prevalence ratio = 1.26; 95% CI = 1.11, 1.43), whereas slight declines in obesity rates were observed in the 3 higher-income quintiles (for these quintiles combined, prevalence ratio = 0.90; 95% CI = 0.81, 0.99). Overall, the shifting obesity patterns in different income groups across time led to substantial changes in obesity risks among both men and women in these groups. In the case of men, the 10-times greater difference in obesity prevalence rates from the highest to the lowest income quintile that existed in 1975 (obesity rates for the 5 quintiles from lowest to highest were 0.5%, 1.4%, 2.2%, 3.7%, and 5.5%, respectively) decreased to a 3-times greater difference in 2003 (corresponding rates of 4.1%, 8.0%, 8.6%, 10.5%, and 12.8%). Among women, the "relative protection" against obesity that existed for the lowest income quintile in 1975 (only 2.6% of women vs 8.6% in the highest income quintile) was eliminated in 2003; in that year, approximately 11% of women in both the lowest and highest income quintiles were obese.
Figure 1
Our comparison of rigorously designed national probabilistic surveys conducted with Brazils adult population in 1975, 1989, and 2003 showed that trends in the risk of obesity varied according to gender and SES during the periods assessed. Age-adjusted results from the 14-year period covered by the first 2 surveys (1975–1989) showed that obesity prevalence rates increased by 92% among men and 63% among women, with higher relative increases seen among individuals in lower income groups (219% increase among men and 227% increase among women). Age-adjusted results from the 14-year period covered by the second pair of surveys (1989–2003) showed a further increase in obesity among men (70%), and again there was a larger increase (150%) among those in lower income groups. In this second period, obesity rates remained virtually stable in the adult female population as a whole. However, rates increased by 26% among women in the 2 lowest income quintiles and decreased by 10% among women in the 3 highest income quintiles. As a consequence, the relative excess of obesity that initially existed among the more affluent was attenuated among men and virtually eliminated among women during the 28-year period covered by the 3 surveys.
Relevance Third, our findings demonstrate that, in the case of women, the shift in obesity toward the poor during 1989 to 2003 was because of both an increase in obesity among those in lower income groups and a decline among those in higher income groups. To date, with the exception of the well-known decline in obesity among women with high levels of education from 2 provinces in Finland—a decline that was the consequence of an unprecedented comprehensive, multisectoral effort to control chronic diseases—there have been no reports of declining trends in obesity in any country.14 Furthermore, no countries have shown any ability to even slow down the rapid increases in obesity.
Underlying Determinants The specific determinants responsible for the higher increases in obesity among Brazilians from lower income groups are not easy to identify. Unfortunately, the country does not have reliable data to assess SES-specific secular trends in patterns of food intake and physical activity. A national household budget survey conducted in parallel to the anthropometric survey of 2002–2003 indicated substantial differences between the dietary habits of low and high income families.19 However, these differences generally pointed to a more obesogenic diet among high income families. For instance, energy from fat represented 34% of total energy consumed in the highest income quintile, compared with 19% in the lowest income quintile; consumption of soft drinks was almost negligible among low-income families (0.41% of total calories) but represented 2.5% of the total energy intake among high-income families.19 In any case, only individual food-intake surveys repeated through time and representative of different socioeconomic groups will be able to clarify the role of diet in determining the different obesity trajectories observed among Brazilian men and women from low-and high-income groups. Patterns of leisure-time physical activity were investigated for the first time in Brazil in a study conducted in 1996–1997; the results of that study revealed that low-income individuals, both men and women, reported less physical exercise than their high-income counterparts.20 However, that investigation did not consider other forms of physical activity, particularly labor-related activities, thus precluding a definitive assessment of the association between SES and physical inactivity. Another study, restricted to the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo, investigated both leisure-time and labor-related physical activities and showed an association between poverty and physical inactivity among women but not among men.21 Additional studies investigating the effects of changes in dietary and physical activity patterns on SES-specific trends in obesity are clearly needed in Brazil, as well as in other developing countries. Trends in the educational levels of the poorer and richer segments of the Brazilian population from 1975 to 2003 could represent one explanation for the differing obesity patterns observed among the different income groups. When we analyzed education data from the 3 national surveys, we found that Brazilian adults in the lowest income quintile had completed, on average, 1.1 years of schooling in 1975, 2.0 years in 1989, and 3.6 years in 2003, whereas their counterparts in the highest income quintile had completed 6.9, 9.2, and 10.4 years of schooling, respectively. Although the absolute increments in years of schooling were only slightly larger for the highest income quintile than for the lowest income quintile (and trends were similar for men and women), the meaning of the changes was quite different for the 2 groups. In the case of the highest income quintile, the increment in schooling showed that two thirds of individuals had completed a high school or university education in 2003, compared with one third in 1975; in the lowest income quintile, the increment in schooling essentially resulted in semiliteracy replacing illiteracy. In a previous Brazilian study, we conducted multivariate regression analyses of income and education on obesity status and found that a higher level of formal education was a potent protector against obesity, particularly among women.22 The education argument gains more strength if we take into account that in Brazil, as in most countries, initiatives aimed at controlling obesity are mostly based on providing information at the individual level. As reported elsewhere, since the early 1990s, the Brazilian commercial mass media has been very active in delivering messages focused on combating sedentary lifestyles and promoting better dietary habits.5 In addition, although poor dietary habits and physical inactivity have been the object of several pioneering governmental initiatives in Brazil, most of these initiatives still focus on motivating and informing the population, with little attention devoted to obesogenic environments.23,24 It is reasonable to assume that the higher-income, more educated segments of the population are in a better position to take advantage of educational initiatives provided by both nongovernmental and governmental sources than their lower-income, less educated counterparts.
Policy Implications Second, whereas policies and programs aiming to control the epidemic of obesity should be designed to effectively reach members of all social classes, they should focus particularly on the poor. Finally, the slight decline in obesity prevalence rates documented here among Brazilian women in high-income groups is a positive sign that the worldwide epidemic of obesity does not have to be viewed as intractable.
This research was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico-CNPq (grant 401965/2005-8) and the National Institutes of Health (grant R01-HD30880/R01-HD38700). We thank Regina Rodrigues for administrative assistance and Bill Shapbell for editorial assistance.
Human Participation Protection
Peer Reviewed
Contributors Accepted for publication November 5, 2006.
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