“Both in the child and adult population, overweight and obesity are greater among men. They also show that a lower level of education, a lower level of income, disability and the presence of obese people in the household are factors related to a greater prevalence of overweight and obesity”. The provinces with the highest percentage of the population with obesity, both in men and women, are mostly in the southern half of the country.
This is the main conclusion of the research carried out by a team from the National Epidemiology Center of the Carlos III Institute of Health and the Spanish Food Safety and Nutrition Agency, which estimates the prevalence of obesity and overweight in Spain, with information on the adult and child population and data distributed by sex, age, geographic location and socio-economic variables.
The results illustrate what the obesity map looks like in Spain. They start from the analysis of the information collected in 2020 for the Ene-Covid survey, coordinated by Carlos III, which studied the seroprevalence of covid infection in Spain. 57,131 adults and 10,543 children participated in this work.
The results of the research on childhood and adolescent obesity, published in the journal Pediatric Obesity, reveal that in 2020 one in three minors between the ages of 2 and 17 in Spain was overweight, and one in ten was obese. The prevalence of extreme obesity reaches 2.1% of children and adolescents. The prevalence of all indicators of excess weight is greater in boys (33.7%) than in girls (26%). Regarding obesity, the prevalence is 13.4% in boys and 7.9% in girls, and extreme obesity is 2.9% in boys and 1 .2% in girls.
By age, the highest prevalences of excess weight, obesity and extreme obesity are observed in the 6- to 9-year-old group; in the case of excess weight, the highest prevalences are recorded among those aged 10 to 13. In terms of geographical distribution, the lowest prevalences of overweight and obesity are in the provinces of the northern half of Spain.
In summary, the researchers point out that the factors associated with excess weight and childhood obesity are “male sex, being between 6 and 9 years old, having a disability, the presence of an overweight adult at home , a lower household educational level and living in areas with a lower income level”. Specifically, these last two factors seem to have more influence on overweight and obesity among girls, this study points out.
The study on obesity in adults, published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, indicates that 55.8% of the population over 18 years of age resident in Spain in 2020 is overweight, a percentage that is in a 18.7% referred to obesity, and 37.1% to overweight. The prevalence of extreme obesity almost reaches 5% of adults (4.9%). And the prevalence is again greater in men.
