The Trends of Prevalence of Obesity in Turkey From 2008-2016

Obesity is one of the major public health problems in Turkey and worldwide. This study was conducted to determine the trends of the obesity prevalence in Turkey from 2008 to 2016 by analysing sociodemographic data.

This study was cross-sectional. Analysis was performed based on 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016 data from Health Survey by Turkish Statistical Institute. Of the 128484 individuals who participated in Turkish Health Research, the body mass index (BMI) of 87205 individuals with aged 15 and older has been calculated. Categorical variables were represented as frequency (%) and continuous variables were represented as mean (±standard deviation) within parentheses. The data were analyzed with SPSS 20 software.

Our findings showed that 16.2% of the individuals 15 years and over was obese (18.7% among women and 13.5% among men P-value< 0.001) in 2008, and the prevalence increased to 22 % in 2016 (26% among women and 17% among men P-value< 0.001). The ratios of obesity were higher among the individuals having a low education (P-value< 0.001) and income level (P-value< 0.001; between 2010-2016) compared to other groups.

Our study demonstrated alarming rates of obesity, particularly among women, among the population 55 to 64 years of age regardless of gender, which was closely associated with low education and income levels. It is crucial to gain healthy lifestyle behaviors within the society and implement strategies and policies for diverse risk groups.