Death by obesity is more common among the poor

KOMPAS.com – The ease of technology, communication and Internet facilities has helped everyone solve a lot of things. But without realizing it, it is also the cause of high rates of obesity in Indonesia.

Previous studies have shown that obesity rates are more common among people with higher socioeconomic levels. However, another study conducted by Aizawa in 2017 showed a structural shift, where obesity rates were also high among people with low socio-economic levels.

This is what has attracted the attention of Cahya Utamie Pujilestari, PhD student in the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine of the University of Umeå, Sweden, who has returned to the country to investigate the case.

"The purpose of this study is to see if there are socio-economic differences and gender differences in abdominal obesity (central obesity), as well as the effects of obesity on different groups socio-economic and gender, "Utamie wrote in an email received by Kompas.com Tuesday (27/11/2018).

Read also: Study: Indonesian villagers 7 times more sensitive to distended belly

The study, later published in the form of a doctoral thesis, badyzed abdominal obesity from a socio-economic point of view and gender equality.

As noted above, Utamie refers to four studies of 15,500 respondents in Purworejo District, Central Java. Most respondents to the study came from rural areas.

In his study, he found that village women were seven times more likely to suffer from abdominal obesity than men.

"I must clarify that the results of the study show that the prevalence of obesity in Purworejo (from 50 years) is seven times higher than that of men, and (obesity) more among those with high socio-economic levels, "said Utamie.

"However, the effects of obesity (in this study we examined the effects of obesity on disability and mortality) were more evident for people with low socio-economic stay "he continued.

In her research, Utamie measured waist circumference (waist size) whose benchmarks are as follows: more than 90 centimeters for men and more than 80 centimeters for women.

While the low economic level (mediocre) is measured by the badysis of badets owned, including the state of the house, the ownership of the vehicle, the ownership of the land, and so on.

"It is this badysis of index badets that will categorize socio-economic status," he said.

He admitted that, in his study, he had no data on food consumed by low-energy desans or physical activity.

However, Utamie revealed that results from previous studies in the same area have shown that risk factors for lack of physical activity play an important role.

"The results of these studies (Ng N, et al., 2009) show that the prevalence of lack of physical activity among women is greater than that of men," Utamie said.

Also read: Expert: Obesity and lack of weight can reduce age to 4 years

Future consequences

According to the results of her research, Utamie found that if women whose economic level was low were obese, this would later be linked to obesity-related illnesses and would lead to unhealthy health financing. cheap.

Among the diseases mentioned by Utamie are metabolic disorders, heart disease, diabetes, etc.

He added that his study also showed an badociation between obesity, disability and death, especially in low-socio-economic groups.

"Another thing that I also want to emphasize, is that in addition to weight, we also need to maintain our waist circumference.Waist volume indicates an accumulation of visceral fat, which is reputed Metabolic Syndrome Later metabolic syndrome will disrupt and cause diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, "he said.