Overweight and coronary risk factors results from a western Austrian survey

Objectives of the study are to estimate prevalence of weight categories in a western Austrian population and to determine differences in primary coronary risk factors between weight categories in adults. The study population consists of 635 males and 693 females aged 25 to 64 years from the state Vorarlberg in western Austria. Age-standardized prevalence of body-mass-index 25.0 to 29.9 kg/m2 is 42.8% in men and 23.0% in women. The prevalence of a body-mass-index of 30.0 kg/m2 or more is 8.6% in men and 13.3% in women. Categories of relative weight correlated in both sexes significantly with all investigated risk factors, i.e. total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting blood glucose and systolic blood pressure. Significance remained in multivariate regression analysis in all parameters for both sexes, when controlling for age. Thus, the survey clearly shows the importance of relative weight as an indicator of elevated coronary risk and the importance of overweight for public health.