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Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity and Their Cardiometabolic Comorbidities in Hispanic Adults Living in Puerto Rico

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Abstract

This study characterized the prevalence of overweight and obesity and assessed their cardiometabolic comorbidities in the population aged 21–79 years living in the San Juan metropolitan area of Puerto Rico. We analyzed data from a household survey conducted in Puerto Rico between 2005 and 2007 that used a representative sample of 840 non-institutionalized adults living in the San Juan metropolitan area. Body mass index categories were classified as normal weight, overweight and obese. Poisson regression model with robust variance was used to estimate the prevalence ratio to assess the association of each cardiometabolic comorbidity (hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, prediabetes, systemic inflammation, prothrombotic state, and coronary heart disease) with overweight and obesity. Age-standardized prevalence of overweight and obesity was 35.9 and 41.5 %, respectively, figures higher than the combined prevalence for the U.S. adult population (68.8 %) but similar to all mainland Hispanics (78.8 %). Men were more likely to be overweight than women (40.4 vs. 33.4 %), whereas more women than men were obese (43.7 vs. 37.6 %). Prevalence of all cardiometabolic comorbidities was significantly (p < 0.05) higher among overweight and obese adults than those of normal weight after adjusting for age, sex, years of education, smoking status, alcohol consumption and physical activity. A considerable proportion of adults in this population are overweight or obese. In view of the wide-ranging effects that overweight and obesity have on health, preventive actions to avert the rise of excess body weight as well as the design of lifestyle interventions are largely needed in this population.

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Acknowledgments

This work was fully supported by an unrestricted grant from Merck & Co., Inc. and partially supported by award number U54 RR026139 from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) and the award Number U54 MD 007587 from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health. Its contents are solely the responsibility of authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of Merck & Co., Inc. or the National Institutes of Health.

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The authors have no commercial associations or sources of support that might pose a conflict of interest.

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Correspondence to Cynthia M. Pérez.

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Pérez, C.M., Sánchez, H. & Ortiz, A.P. Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity and Their Cardiometabolic Comorbidities in Hispanic Adults Living in Puerto Rico. J Community Health 38, 1140–1146 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-013-9726-5

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