Population trends and variation in body mass index from 1971 to 2008 in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort.

<h4>Objective</h4>We examined body mass index (BMI) across place and time to determine the pattern of BMI mean and standard deviation trajectories.<h4>Methods</h4>We included participants in the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) Offspring Cohort over eight waves of follow-up, from...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jason P Block, S V Subramanian, Nicholas A Christakis, A James O'Malley
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2013-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0063217&type=printable
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850138286143569920
author Jason P Block
S V Subramanian
Nicholas A Christakis
A James O'Malley
author_facet Jason P Block
S V Subramanian
Nicholas A Christakis
A James O'Malley
author_sort Jason P Block
collection DOAJ
description <h4>Objective</h4>We examined body mass index (BMI) across place and time to determine the pattern of BMI mean and standard deviation trajectories.<h4>Methods</h4>We included participants in the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) Offspring Cohort over eight waves of follow-up, from 1971 to 2008. After exclusions, the final sample size was 4569 subjects with 28,625 observations. We used multi-level models to examine population means and variation at the individual and neighborhood (census tracts) levels across time with measured BMI as the outcome, controlling for individual demographics and behaviors and neighborhood poverty. Because neighborhoods accounted for limited BMI variance, we removed this level as a source of variation in final models. We examined sex-stratified models with all subjects and models stratified by sex and baseline weight classification.<h4>Results</h4>Mean BMI increased from 24.0 kg/m(2) at Wave 1 to 27.7 at Wave 8 for women and from 26.6 kg/m(2) to 29.0 for men. In final models, BMI variation also increased from Waves 1 to 8, with the standard deviation increasing from 4.18 kg/m(2) to 6.15 for women and 3.31 kg/m(2) to 4.73 for men. BMI means increased in parallel across most baseline BMI weight classifications, except for more rapid increases through middle-age for obese women followed by declines in the last wave. BMI standard deviations also increased in parallel across baseline BMI classifications for women, with greater divergence of BMI variance for obese men compared to other weight classifications.<h4>Conclusion</h4>Over nearly 40 years, BMI mean and variation increased in parallel across most baseline weight classifications in our sample. Individual-level characteristics, especially baseline BMI, were the primary factors in rising BMI. These findings have important implications not only for understanding the sources of the obesity epidemic in the United States but also for the targeting of interventions to address the epidemic.
format Article
id doaj-art-fb58686b336e45f48bd2d723a0a742b7
institution OA Journals
issn 1932-6203
language English
publishDate 2013-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS ONE
spelling doaj-art-fb58686b336e45f48bd2d723a0a742b72025-08-20T02:30:37ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032013-01-0185e6321710.1371/journal.pone.0063217Population trends and variation in body mass index from 1971 to 2008 in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort.Jason P BlockS V SubramanianNicholas A ChristakisA James O'Malley<h4>Objective</h4>We examined body mass index (BMI) across place and time to determine the pattern of BMI mean and standard deviation trajectories.<h4>Methods</h4>We included participants in the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) Offspring Cohort over eight waves of follow-up, from 1971 to 2008. After exclusions, the final sample size was 4569 subjects with 28,625 observations. We used multi-level models to examine population means and variation at the individual and neighborhood (census tracts) levels across time with measured BMI as the outcome, controlling for individual demographics and behaviors and neighborhood poverty. Because neighborhoods accounted for limited BMI variance, we removed this level as a source of variation in final models. We examined sex-stratified models with all subjects and models stratified by sex and baseline weight classification.<h4>Results</h4>Mean BMI increased from 24.0 kg/m(2) at Wave 1 to 27.7 at Wave 8 for women and from 26.6 kg/m(2) to 29.0 for men. In final models, BMI variation also increased from Waves 1 to 8, with the standard deviation increasing from 4.18 kg/m(2) to 6.15 for women and 3.31 kg/m(2) to 4.73 for men. BMI means increased in parallel across most baseline BMI weight classifications, except for more rapid increases through middle-age for obese women followed by declines in the last wave. BMI standard deviations also increased in parallel across baseline BMI classifications for women, with greater divergence of BMI variance for obese men compared to other weight classifications.<h4>Conclusion</h4>Over nearly 40 years, BMI mean and variation increased in parallel across most baseline weight classifications in our sample. Individual-level characteristics, especially baseline BMI, were the primary factors in rising BMI. These findings have important implications not only for understanding the sources of the obesity epidemic in the United States but also for the targeting of interventions to address the epidemic.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0063217&type=printable
spellingShingle Jason P Block
S V Subramanian
Nicholas A Christakis
A James O'Malley
Population trends and variation in body mass index from 1971 to 2008 in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort.
PLoS ONE
title Population trends and variation in body mass index from 1971 to 2008 in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort.
title_full Population trends and variation in body mass index from 1971 to 2008 in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort.
title_fullStr Population trends and variation in body mass index from 1971 to 2008 in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort.
title_full_unstemmed Population trends and variation in body mass index from 1971 to 2008 in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort.
title_short Population trends and variation in body mass index from 1971 to 2008 in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort.
title_sort population trends and variation in body mass index from 1971 to 2008 in the framingham heart study offspring cohort
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0063217&type=printable
work_keys_str_mv AT jasonpblock populationtrendsandvariationinbodymassindexfrom1971to2008intheframinghamheartstudyoffspringcohort
AT svsubramanian populationtrendsandvariationinbodymassindexfrom1971to2008intheframinghamheartstudyoffspringcohort
AT nicholasachristakis populationtrendsandvariationinbodymassindexfrom1971to2008intheframinghamheartstudyoffspringcohort
AT ajamesomalley populationtrendsandvariationinbodymassindexfrom1971to2008intheframinghamheartstudyoffspringcohort