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Abstract: Objective: To evaluate body mass index (BMI - kg/m:) trend of the elderly (> 60 y) in the poorest (Northeast) and richest (Southeast) regions of Brazil. Method: Household surveys conducted in 1975, 1989 and 1997 measured weight and stature of a probabilistic sample of about 18,000 elderly people. Weighted prevalences were calculated and analysis took into account the sample design. Results: In the entire period, the prevalence of overweight doubled reaching 37.4% for men and 50.6% for women in the most recent survey. Although there was an important reduction in the prevalence of underweight, these percentages were still high in the poorest region for both sexes in 1997 (13%). The increase in BMI in the period from 1975 to 1989 was significant for all subgroups, except for the men living in the rural area of the richest region, but this group was the only one that presented a significant increase in the BMI in the 1989-1997 period. Conclusions: Overweight has highly prevalent among the elderly. However there was no trend of increasing BMI in the last period, except for men living in the rural area of the richest region. Underweight is still an important nutritional problem in the poorest region.
Key words: Secular trend, elderly. Body Mass Index, overweight, underweight, developing countries.
Introduction
Elderly subjects represent the fastest-growing segment of population throughout the world. In developing countries, the percentage of elderly tends to be small although the absolute numbers are often large. In 1990 there were more than 280 million people aged 60 or over living in developing countries. This population represented 58% of the world's elderly. The portion of elderly is rising more rapidly in developing countries than in developed ones; by the year 2020 it is expected that almost 70% of the world's elderly people will be in developing countries, with the absolute number exceeding 700 million compared with 318 million in the more developed regions (1). Data from the 2000 Brazilian census showed that 8.6% of the population was over 60 years; and, in the next twenty years, it is estimated that the elderly can reach 13% of the population or 30 million (2).
Overweight is an important risk factor for disease among elderly such as diabetes and cardiovascular...