[Epidemiologic data on obesity and overweight in the elderly]

The incidence and the prevalence of obesity are progressively increasing in all the more industrialized Western nations: in the USA, approximately 280,000 deaths/year are attributable to obesity. Moreover the general structure of the population to world-wide level is enduring a strong change, since it is increasing towards the bands of more advanced ages: the strong aging of population makes it necessary to deepen the behavior and the consequences of obesity as risk factor also in the third age. In Italy, overweight subjects, amounting to more than 15 million over the age of eighteen, have not increased since 1994, but the obese ones in the general population are approximately 8%. The distribution of the prevalence of obesity in the range of age between 45 and 75 does not seem to be much age correlated in the male population, while it is more age related in the women: the prevalence decreases in the last class of age. We can found a similar trend for the overweight conditions. Differences in the distribution of this important risk factor, even if often neglected, also are tied to the professional skills and education.