Prevalence of Overweight and Associated Factors in a Male Prison Population in the Extreme South of Brazil: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: This cross-sectional study serves as a first Brazilian inventory about overweight as a marker for metabolic health and risk factor to develop noncommunicable chronic diseases in prison populations. The prevalence of overweight, and its associated factors in prisoners of the Fifth Regional State Penitentiary of Rio Grande do Sul (5th DPR) in the extreme South of Brazil were investigated using a precoded questionnaire with sociodemographic, behavioral, and health questions, applied to proportional stratified random sampled prisoners. Methods: Five hundred eighty male prisoners (70%) in the closed regime agreed to answer the questionnaire and allowed anthropomorphic body measurement, carried out by trained scientists. We used bivariate Pearson's chi-squared test and adjusted multinomial logistic regression for analyses. Results: Considering that the studied incarcerated population is young (mean age 33 years) it is concerning that already 43.6% of them are overweight, report regular sweets and sugary soft drink consumption (77.7%, and 81.4%, respectively), 60.2% are smokers, and 19.4% are at elevated risk to develop cardiovascular diseases. Further, 13.8% of the respondents reported a diagnosis of hypertension, 4.9% hypercholesterolemia, and 2.7% diabetes mellitus type 2. Among those who reported not smoking, excess weight was almost four times higher (prevalence ratio: 3.79; 95% confidence interval: 2.61–5.50). Conclusions: Our study suggests that the prison environment promotes modifiable risk factors for chronic diseases. These data deserve attention and intervention, aiming to prevent and reduce the current levels of excess weight.