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Epidemiology and ethnicity

This section includes studies on all epidemiological aspects of obesity and its causes and effects, as well as studies looking at ethnic and within-country and between-country differences in obesity.

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  1. Children with overweight or obesity are at greatly increased risk of experiencing obesity in adulthood but for reasons generally unknown some attain a healthier adult weight. This qualitative study investigate...

    Authors: M. J. Sharman, K. A. Jose, A. J. Venn, S. Banks, J. Ayton and V. J. Cleland
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2019 6:16
  2. There is limited data on risk factors associated with childhood overweight and obesity in Ghanaian school children. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity and a...

    Authors: Theodosia Adom, Anniza De Villiers, Thandi Puoane and André Pascal Kengne
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2019 6:14
  3. Neck circumference (NC) is a novel simple and stable body measurement, a growing body of evidence indicates its validity to diagnose obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS). Because the cutoff value of NC is gen...

    Authors: Rasmieh Alzeidan, Amel Fayed, Ahmed S. Hersi and Hala Elmorshedy
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2019 6:13
  4. Parent’s and child’s body mass index (BMI) are strongly associated, but their relationship varies by child’s sex and age. Parental BMI reflects, among other factors, parents’ behaviors and home environment, wh...

    Authors: Che Young Lee, Tracey A. Ledoux, Craig A. Johnston, Guadalupe X. Ayala and Daniel P. O’Connor
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2019 6:11
  5. Individuals’ self-perceptions of weight often differ from objective measurements of body fat. This study aimed to 1) measure agreement between self-perceptions of weight and objective measurement of body fat b...

    Authors: Anthony L. Bui, Miguel G. Moscoso, Antonio Bernabe-Ortiz, William Checkley, Robert H. Gilman, Liam Smeeth and J. Jaime Miranda
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2019 6:9
  6. An understanding of capacity for physical activity in obese populations should help guide interventions to promote physical activity. Fear of falling is a phenomenon reported in the elderly, which is associate...

    Authors: Gilly Rosic, Anne M. Milston, Jim Richards and Paola Dey
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2019 6:7
  7. Despite evidence that biological and genetic factors contribute strongly to obesity, many healthcare providers still attribute obesity more to controllable behavioral issues rather than factors outside a perso...

    Authors: Victoria Fang, Colleen Gillespie, Ruth Crowe, Dennis Popeo and Melanie Jay
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2019 6:5
  8. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have among the highest prevalence of adult obesity and type 2 diabetes in the world. This study aimed to estimate the recent prevalence of obesity among school-age ...

    Authors: Hanouf Al Hammadi and John Reilly
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2019 6:3
  9. Excessive gestational weight gain and rapid infancy weight gain (RIWG) are associated with increased susceptibility to childhood obesity. Since low-income and minority children are particularly at risk, invest...

    Authors: Cheryl L. K. Gibby, Cristina Palacios, Maribel Campos, Eunjung Lim and Jinan Banna
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2018 5:41
  10. Overweight and obesity are associated with health complications the gravity of which, vary with the regional deposition of the excess fat. The Body Mass Index (BMI) is often used to measure obesity although is...

    Authors: Steven Ndugwa Kabwama, Barbara Kirunda, Gerald Mutungi, Ronald Wesonga, Silver K. Bahendeka and David Guwatudde
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2018 5:40
  11. A major contributor to the growing obesity crisis is screen based sedentary behaviour among young children. Media parenting practices may be an important determinant of children’s screen time, however publishe...

    Authors: Lisa Tang, Gerarda Darlington, David W L Ma and Jess Haines
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2018 5:37
  12. Several studies examining the association and discriminative ability of adiposity measures for prehypertension and hypertension among adolescents have reported varying outcomes. We aimed to determine the discr...

    Authors: Oghenebrume Wariri, Iliya Jalo and Fidelia Bode-Thomas
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2018 5:35
  13. The relationship between obesity and depression is complex. This study assessed the impact of body mass index (BMI) on the link between BMI, inflammation, oxidative stress, sleep quality and self-reported depr...

    Authors: Alanna V. Rigobon, Thirumagal Kanagasabai and Valerie H. Taylor
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2018 5:32
  14. Understanding how normal weight and obese young children process high-calorie food stimuli may provide information relevant to the neurobiology of eating behavior contributing to childhood obesity. In this stu...

    Authors: Amjad Samara, Xuehua Li, R. T. Pivik, Thomas M. Badger and Xiawei Ou
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2018 5:31
  15. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative joint disease. While it is well-established that obesity affects OA through increased axial loading on the joint cartilage, the indirect effect of obesity through ...

    Authors: Kelsey H. Collins, Behnam Sharif, Raylene A. Reimer, Claudia Sanmartin, Walter Herzog, Rick Chin and Deborah A. Marshall
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2018 5:23
  16. Obesity is positively associated with low-level chronic inflammation, and negatively associated with several indices of health-related quality of life (HRQOL). It is however not clear if obesity-associated inf...

    Authors: Jeffrey Wilkins, Palash Ghosh, Juan Vivar, Bibhas Chakraborty and Sujoy Ghosh
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2018 5:21
  17. Although there have been extensive studies that make group comparisons on child eating and feeding practices, few studies have examined measurement equivalence to ensure that measures used to make such group c...

    Authors: Marisol Perez, Tara K. Ohrt, Amanda B. Bruening, Aaron B. Taylor, Jeffrey Liew, Ashley M. W. Kroon Van Diest and Tatianna Ungredda
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2018 5:17
  18. Overweight and obesity is quite prevalent among seafarers. The present study examined differences in BMI and their association with weight, shape and nutrition related attitudes and perceptions among seafarer ...

    Authors: Joachim Westenhoefer, Robert von Katzler, Hans-Joachim Jensen, Birgit-Christiane Zyriax, Bettina Jagemann, Volker Harth and Marcus Oldenburg
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2018 5:1
  19. Childhood overnutrition is a serious public health problem, with consequences that extend into adulthood. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and determinants of overweight and obesity among ...

    Authors: Richmond Aryeetey, Anna Lartey, Grace S. Marquis, Helena Nti, Esi Colecraft and Patricia Brown
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2017 4:38
  20. The utility of bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) derived adiposity measures as compared to anthropometric measures for the assessment of adiposity-related health risk is not clear. We aimed to clarify the...

    Authors: Kevin Y. Taing, Michael E. Farkouh, Rahim Moineddin, Jack V. Tu and Prabhat Jha
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2017 4:37
  21. Low physical activity and a sedentary lifestyle are contributing to overweight/obesity in children. This study aims to explore relationships between out of school physical activity, sedentary lifestyle and soc...

    Authors: Lifoter K. Navti, Mary B. Atanga and Loveline L. Niba
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2017 4:35
  22. Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is known as an independent predictor of cardiometabolic risk and all-cause mortality, while increased physical activity has been shown to improve cardiometabolic risk. The purpose...

    Authors: Sean McGrath, Danielle Brazel, Lara Dugas, Guichan Cao, Ramon Durazo-Arvizu and Amy Luke
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2017 4:34
  23. Factors influencing the increasing prevalence of overweight/obesity among children and adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa remain unclear. We assessed the prevalence and determinants of overweight and obesity an...

    Authors: Sarah Negash, Charles Agyemang, Tandi E Matsha, Nasheeta Peer, Rajiv T Erasmus and Andre P Kengne
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2017 4:29
  24. Increased visceral adiposity is strongly associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, little attention has been paid to the association between the change in subcutaneous adipose mass an...

    Authors: Ryotaro Bouchi, Tatsuya Fukuda, Takato Takeuchi, Yujiro Nakano, Masanori Murakami, Isao Minami, Hajime Izumiyama, Koshi Hashimoto, Takanobu Yoshimoto and Yoshihiro Ogawa
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2017 4:27
  25. The elderly are faced with health problems such as cardiovascular diseases, type II diabetes mellitus, kidney disease, arthritis and other musculoskeletal problems, which can be linked to obesity and overweigh...

    Authors: Benjamin D. Nuertey, Alabira Iddrisu Alhassan, Augustine D. Nuertey, Isaac Asimadu Mensah, Victor Adongo, Clement Kabutey, Joyce Addai and Richard Bekoe Biritwum
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2017 4:26
  26. Childhood overweight/obesity is increasing rapidly in developing countries. There is a need to provide more evidence on its burden in sub-Saharan Africa, and to identify associated factors in order to set prev...

    Authors: Simeon-Pierre Choukem, Josiane Kamdeu-Chedeu, Sam D. Leary, Yannick Mboue-Djieka, Daniel N. Nebongo, Christoph Akazong, Yacouba N. Mapoure, Julian P. Hamilton-Shield, Jean-François Gautier and Jean Claude Mbanya
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2017 4:7
  27. Obesity is currently a global health challenge driven by a mix of behavioural, environmental and genetic factors. Up to date population-based disease burden estimates are needed to guide successful prevention ...

    Authors: Leopold Ndemnge Aminde, Jeannine A. Atem, Andre Pascal Kengne, Anastase Dzudie and J. Lennert Veerman
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2017 4:1
  28. To examine associations of Body mass Index (BMI) and mental distress in late midlife in a large Danish community sample and to investigate the effect of socio-demographic factors.

    Authors: Cathrine Lawaetz Wimmelmann, Rikke Lund, Ulla Christensen, Merete Osler and Erik Lykke Mortensen
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2016 3:54
  29. Short sleep has been linked to obesity. However, sleep is a multidimensional behavior that cannot be characterized solely by sleep duration. There is limited study that comprehensively examined different sleep...

    Authors: Qian Xiao, Fangyi Gu, Neil Caporaso and Charles E. Matthews
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2016 3:48
  30. As a result of both genetic and environmental factors, the body composition and topography of African populations are presumed to be different from western populations. Accordingly, globally accepted anthropom...

    Authors: Tilahun Nigatu Haregu, Samuel Oti, Thaddaeus Egondi and Catherine Kyobutungi
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2016 3:46
  31. Weight change in first year university students, often referred to as ‘Freshman 15’, has been shown to be a common problem in North America. Studies have reported weight gain to be between 1 kg and 4 kg over t...

    Authors: Claudia Vadeboncoeur, Charlie Foster and Nick Townsend
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2016 3:45

    The Erratum to this article has been published in BMC Obesity 2016 3:53

  32. Abdominal obesity increases all-cause mortality and is a risk factor for a number of diseases. There are few population-based studies of the longitudinal changes of abdominal obesity.

    Authors: Bjarne K. Jacobsen and Nils Abel Aars
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2016 3:41
  33. Errors in reported height and weight raise concerns about body mass index (BMI) and obesity estimates obtained from self or proxy reports. Researchers have corrected BMI using linear statistical models, primar...

    Authors: Madhumita (Bonnie) Ghosh-Dastidar, Ann C Haas, Nancy Nicosia and Ashlesha Datar
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2016 3:37
  34. Misperception of body weight by individuals is a known occurrence. However, it is a potential target for implementing obesity reduction interventions in patients with cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. The...

    Authors: Ranil Jayawardena, Pavani Punchihewa, Ishara Ranathunga, Niroshan Lokunarangoda, Anidu Keerthi Pathirana and Wijeyasingam Samuel Santharaj
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2016 3:32
  35. Obesity prevalence is higher among African American adolescent (AAA) girls than among non-black girls. Lower levels of physical activity (PA) likely contribute to this disparity; this may be impacted by hairst...

    Authors: Susan J. Woolford, Carole J. Woolford-Hunt, Areej Sami, Natalie Blake and David R. Williams
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2016 3:31
  36. Ankle-brachial index (ABI) and indices of obesity are both use to indicate cardiovascular risk. However, association between body composition indices and ABI, a measure of peripheral arterial disease, is incon...

    Authors: Kwame Yeboah, Peter Puplampu, Ernest Yorke, Daniel A. Antwi, Ben Gyan and Albert G. B. Amoah
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2016 3:27
  37. The context of the close neighbourhood environment in which children live has gained increasing attention in epidemiological research. This study aimed to investigate if contextual neighbourhood socioeconomic ...

    Authors: Steffen Andreas Schüle, Rüdiger von Kries, Hermann Fromme and Gabriele Bolte
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2016 3:25
  38. Obesity is a risk factor for inadequate receipt of recommended preventive care services. The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between increasing body mass index and receipt of influenza a...

    Authors: John A. Harris, Michelle H. Moniz, Brad Iott, Robyn Power and Jennifer J. Griggs
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2016 3:24
  39. Type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes are an increasing pandemic globally and often remain undiagnosed long after onset in low-income settings. The objective of this study is to assess the determinants and prevalen...

    Authors: Dewan S. Alam, Shamim H. Talukder, Muhammad Ashique Haider Chowdhury, Ali Tanweer Siddiquee, Shyfuddin Ahmed, Sonia Pervin, Sushmita Khan, Khaled Hasan, Tracey L. P. Koehlmoos and Louis W. Niessen
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2016 3:19
  40. The prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing in Bangladesh. It is higher among Bangladeshi women than among men. This study was conducted to assess a host of demographic and socioeconomic correlates ...

    Authors: Haribondhu Sarma, Nazmus Saquib, Md Mehedi Hasan, Juliann Saquib, Ahmed Shafiqur Rahman, Jahidur Rahman Khan, Md Jasim Uddin, Mark R. Cullen and Tahmeed Ahmed
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2016 3:13
  41. Overweight, obesity, and related chronic diseases are becoming serious public health concerns in rural areas of India. Compounded with the existing issue of underweight, such concerns expose the double burden ...

    Authors: Matthew Little, Sally Humphries, Kirit Patel and Cate Dewey
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2016 3:12
  42. Many common risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) originate in childhood and adolescence. There is a lack of literature examining variability within study populations, as well as a shortage of simultan...

    Authors: Edward Haksing Ip, Xiaoyan Leng, Qiang Zhang, Robert Schwartz, Shyh-Huei Chen, Shifan Dai and Darwin Labarthe
    Citation: BMC Obesity 2016 3:9