Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Alfredo Morabia, MD, PhD, CBNS, City University of New York, 163-03 Horace Harding Expressway, Flushing, NY 11365, 718-670-4226, am52@columbia.edu and Michael C. Costanza, PhD, Division of Clinical Epidemiology, Geneva University Hospitals, 25 Micheli Du Crest, Geneva, 1205, Switzerland.

Background: US-like increases in obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes may be underway in Europe. Reports on trends normally rely upon periodic local or national surveys, usually repeated within intervals of years. Because of random sampling variation in survey responses, reliance on data from a limited number of time points in a decade can be misleading. Methods: Continuous surveillance program over 12-years (1993-2004) based on annual random surveys of Geneva adults (6,688 men and 6,647 women). Results: Overweight/obesity combined increased in both men (44% to 61%, P<0.0001) and women (25% to 33%, P<0.02). Hypercholesterolemia also rose (men: 20% to 33%, P<0.0003; women: 18% to 23%, P<0.002). Diabetes treatment increased in men (1.5% to 5%, P<0.0001). Diabetics had more of the other two risk factors (P<0.05). Conclusions: This is strong evidence of concurrent, increasing 12-year trends in overweight and/or obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes treatment in a European general adult population. These trends might have been missed without the unique, ongoing system of continuous surveillance of health determinants in Geneva. Trends based on a large number of more closely-spaced time points can be identified clearly and interpreted with more confidence than if they are based on smaller numbers of time points spaced at much longer intervals.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the importance of continuous, long term surveillance of risk factors in the community. Identify the current trends of obesity, hypocholesterolemia and diabetes in a European general population.

Keywords: Surveillance, Risk Factors

Related Web page: www.epidemiology.ch

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No