[Factors associated with abdominal obesity among childbearing-age women]

To investigate variables potentially associated with abdominal obesity among childbearing-age women.

A total of 781 women were studied based on data from the Nutrition and Health Survey conducted in 1996 in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Abdominal obesity was defined as waist girth (WG) > 80 cm or waist:hips girth ratio (WHR) > 0.85. Statistical analysis involved calculation of central trend measures. Calculating the odds ratio using multivariate logistic regression tested the association between abdominal obesity and BMI, age, parity, and tobacco use.

The highest frequencies of abdominal obesity were observed in women over 35 years of age and those with two or more children (50.7%). OR showed the effect of interaction between parity and age for WG>80 cm when only the effect of these two variables was controlled. Based on the logistic regression models, the study showed that when the population was categorized into women with and without overweight, schooling was the only factor associated with WHR, while the association with age and parity disappeared for WG>80 cm.

Abdominal obesity in this population group is independent of age and parity when adjusted by relative weight, with overall adiposity and schooling as the greatest determinant. Having more schooling meant having a smaller WHR. It is crucial to implement strategies to prevent the development of obesity in childbearing-age women.