Evolution of obesity prevalence in France: An age-period-cohort analysis

Abstract

BACKGROUND: A rapid increase in the prevalence of obesity has been reported in France since 1990. We investigated the impact of birth cohort on the changes in obesity prevalence after taking into account age and survey period. METHODS: We analyzed data from 4 national surveys in 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2006. For each survey, self-reported data on weight and height were recorded on mailed questionnaires sent to a sample of 20,000 households, representative of the French population. Obesity was defined according to World Health Organization criteria as body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m2 We modeled the prevalence of obesity using logistic regression with age, cohort, and period as explanatory variables. ..