Excesso de peso e mortalidade em estados brasileiros e argentinos

Abstract

Overweight and obesity affect more than a half of the world's adult population and are a strong risk factors for non-communicable diseases, which are the main cause of death, especially in people under 70 years of age. Regarding the relationship between overweight and obesity and mortality, studies have shown controversial results. In this sense, our study investigated the association between the prevalence of overweight and obesity with general and specific mortality rates in Brazil and Argentina through an ecological study. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was obtained from the telephone survey called Vigitel (Surveillance of Risk Factors and Protection for Chronic Diseases), in Brazil, and the ENFR (National Survey of Risk Factors for Noncommunicable Diseases) in Argentina; while general and specific mortality rates (for hormone-dependent and cardiovascular diseases) were obtained from the DATASUS Mortality Information System for Brazil and from the Health Statistics and Direction of the Ministry of Health of Argentina. Linear regression analysis showed a negative association for all exposures and outcomes in Argentina, which were attenuated after adjusting for the potential confounders. In Brazil, the crude analysis showed no association between the prevalence of overweight and obesity with general and specific mortality rates. On the other hand, there was a positive association between the proportion of individuals classified as having normal BMI and the mortality rate due to cardiovascular diseases (β = 5.14, 95% CI 0.84 and 9.45) and negative prevalence of overweight and this mortality rate (β = -4.03, 95% CI -8.05 and -0.02), after adjustment for the potential confounders. We concluded that the associations between the prevalence of overweight and obesity with general and specific mortality rates were inconsistent, in both Brazil and Argentina.