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Prevalence and Risk Factors of Overweight and Obesity and Physical Activity Patterns among Elderly Individuals in Southern Thailand: A Community Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of overweight and obesity and physical activity (PA) patterns and to assess the factors associated with obesity among elderly individuals in the southernmost province of Thailand.

Materials and Methods: An epidemiological community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among elderly individuals aged 60 years and older. The eligible participants completed a face-to-face inquiry of the study’s questionnaire related to personal characteristics and PA. Local assistant researchers collected these data. BMI was categorized according to the Asian-Pacific cut-off points. Statistical computing was performed with RStudio, and a p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: The prevalence of overweight was 20.3%, and that of obesity was 35.2%. The overweight prevalence and obese prevalence among male and female elderly individuals were 22.7% and 30.3%, and 18.6% and 28.6%, respectively. The obesity prevalence was non-significantly high in the female group. The majority of the elderly participants were non-working. The share of non-working participants was the highest among females and increased with age. The prevalence of lack of exercise was the highest among females. Daily physical activity hours (DPAH) and vigorous-intensity exercise decreased among the female group and the elderly group. Only 47.8% of the present study participants met the PA sufficiency criteria. The 70 to 79, and older than 80 years age group were less likely to be obese than the earlier-stage elderly group (adjusted OR 0.56, 0.31). Furthermore, personal income of 4,001 to 6,000 Baht per month and smokers had a lower likelihood of being obese than the poor elderly group and those who were not smokers (adjusted OR 0.55, 0.37).

Conclusion: The prevalence of overweight in these areas was moderate, and that of obesity was quite high. The male overweight and obese prevalence were analogous to those of female elderly individuals. The majority of the elderly participants were non-working. Most were females and increased with age. The majority met PA insufficiency criteria. Personal and health habit factors were associated with obesity among elderly individuals.

Keywords: Elderly; Overweight and obesity; Physical activity patterns