Global differences between women and men in the prevalence of obesity: is there an association with gender inequality?

Background/objectives: In most populations the prevalence of obesity is greater in women than in men; however, the magnitude of the difference between the sexes varies significantly by country. We considered the role of gender inequality in explaining these disparities. Subjects/methods: We undertoo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of clinical nutrition 2014-10, Vol.68 (10), p.1101-1106
Main Authors: Garawi, F, Devries, K, Thorogood, N, Uauy, R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
692/699/1702/393
Biological and medical sciences
Clinical Nutrition
Demographic aspects
Epidemiology
Feeding. Feeding behavior
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gender
Gender aspects
Gender differences
Health Status Disparities
Heterogeneity
Humans
Inequality
Internal Medicine
Male
Medical sciences
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Men
Metabolic Diseases
Multiple regression models
Nutrition
Obesity
Obesity - epidemiology
Obesity - ethnology
original-article
Prevalence
Public Health
Regression analysis
Risk Factors
Sex differences
Sex Factors
Social Class
Socioeconomic Factors
Vertebrates: anatomy and physiology, studies on body, several organs or systems
Women
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background/objectives: In most populations the prevalence of obesity is greater in women than in men; however, the magnitude of the difference between the sexes varies significantly by country. We considered the role of gender inequality in explaining these disparities. Subjects/methods: We undertook an ecological analysis of internationally comparable obesity prevalence data to examine the association between indicators of gender inequality and the differences between men and women in obesity prevalence. Gender inequality was assessed using three measures: the Gender Inequality Index, the Global Gender Gap Index and the Social Institutions and Gender Index. We fitted multiple regression models to examine the association. Results: We found that the prevalence of obesity across countries shows gendered patterning with greater prevalence and greater heterogeneity in women than in men ( P
ISSN:0954-3007
1476-5640
DOI:10.1038/ejcn.2014.86