Authors

Rubén Colominas Garrido

Position

Enfermero de CAP Passeig Sant Joan (Barcelona). Máster en Atención Primaria de Salud.

Contact address

C/ Fivaller, 6. 08759 Vallirana (Barcelona).

Contact email: colominasruben@gmail.com

Abstract

The mediterranean lifestyle decrease the prevalence of obesity: baseline of the EVIDENT descriptive study
Objective: to evaluate the relationship between adherence to a Mediterranean Diet (MD), the regular physical exercise and the parameters associated with a non-atherogenic metabolic profile in primary care patients.
Design, scope and participants: cross-sectional multicenter study. The collection of systematic random sampling was conducted in six primary care centres in Spain. The total sample comprised of 438 patients, aged 20-80 years.
Main measurements: first, we collected socio-demographic data, through interviews and questionnaires on diet and Physical Activity (PA). Second, physical examinations were performed by determining weight, height, Waist Circumference (WC) and Percentage of Body Fat (PBF).
Main results: the risk of having grade 2 overweight is about 50% lower in patients on a MD. In this group of patients there is up to 60% lower prevalence of obesity and lower overall PBF.
In addition, patients who described themselves as active, mostly men, have about 40% lower risk of high-risk abdominal obesity.
Conclusions: we demonstrated that patients on a MD have a lower prevalence of overweight and obesity. It has also been observed that subjects considered active have a substantially lower WC than subjects considered inactive.
These findings suggest that educational and health measures in the field of diet and physical activity are essential to improve the health of the population.

Keywords:

mediterranean diet; obesity prevalence; physical activity

Versión en Español

Título:

El estilo de vida mediterráneo disminuye la prevalencia de obesidad: descriptiva basal del estudio EVIDENT