Excess weight prevalence and associated factors in an urban population from the Amazonas countryside, Brazil

Objective: To describe the prevalence of overweight in the adult population from the municipality of Tefé, Amazonas, according to sociodemographic, lifestyle and health-related characteristics. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional population-based study that assessed 451 individuals aged ≥18 years in 2015 using a household survey. A questionnaire was used to assess sociodemographic descriptors (gender, age, marital status, education, household income), lifestyle (smoking, drinking, physical inactivity) and health (nutritional profile, obesity, diabetes mellitus, hypertension) and risk for overweight and obesity, with α=0.05. Results: It was found that 22.7% (n=102) of the population of Tefé is overweight (95%CI: 20.1-24.6). However, the prevalence of overweight is 1.42 times higher in individuals aged ≥ 36 years compared to those aged 18-35 years (95%CI: 1.00-2.02). Higher prevalence rates were observed among hypertensive individuals (1.58; 95%CI: 1.11-2.25), those who do not eat fish frequently (8.98; 95%CI: 6.37-12.68) and those with increased abdominal circumference (3.5; 95%CI: 2.41-5.07). The analysis demonstrated an association between increased BMI by gender and abdominal circumference. In the analysis adjusted for age, fish consumption and hypertension, the risk for overweight was 10.07 for individuals with increased abdominal circumference (95%CI: 5.01-20.26, p=0.00) and 3.94 for men (95%CI: 2.04-7.61; p=0.00). Conclusion: The results show that the prevalence of overweight in the population of Tefé is higher among men with increased abdominal fat.