Endocrine Abstracts

Objectives: Obesity is a chronic and progressive disease that limits physical activity, causes psychological problems, and finally leads to social isolation of the person. Detecting the factors affecting obesity and its prevalence in the populaton are important steps in dealing with the problem. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the obesity prevalence and the factors affecting this prevalence in randomly selected volunteers from residents of the city of Bursa.

Methods: A questionnaire consisting of 40 questions evaluating the sociodemographic aspects, healthy nutrition and exercise habbits and comorbidities of the subjects was performed face to face to 528 volunteers (414 females, 114 males) participating in our study. Height, weight, waist, hip, neck and wrist circumferences and random blood glucose levels were measured. BMI and waist to hip ratio were calculated for each participant.

Results: The mean age of the whole study population, female and male participants were 39.6±12.8, 40.2±12.7 and 37.1±12.9 years, respectively. According to BMI values 23.5% of the whole study population, 25.8% of females and 14.9% of males were obese. For the female subjects, the obesity prevalence was found to be increasing with age, being married, being housewife and having lunch at home and decreasing with higher education level and income. When we investigated the male subjects, the only factor related to and found to be increasing the obesity prevalence was having lunch at home.

Conclusions: Obesity is a worldwide problem. Its prevelance is increasing in our city and country. Education level of the subjects seems to be the most important factor in controlling body weight. It is possible to prevent most of the morbidities and mortality related to obesity by preventing weight gain. Every effort should be made to increase the level of education about healthy nutrition habbits and importance of regular physical activity.