Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Int J Obes (Lond). 2013 Aug;37(8):1129-34. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2012.198. Epub 2012 Dec 11.
Abdominal obesity predicts a wide range of adverse health outcomes. Over the past several decades, prevalence of abdominal obesity has increased markedly in industrialized countries like the United States No previous analyses, however, have evaluated whether there are birth cohort effects for abdominal obesity. Estimating cohort effects is necessary to forecast future health trends and understand the past population-level trends.
This analysis evaluated whether there were birth cohort effects for abdominal obesity for the Silent Generation (born 1925-1945), children of the Great Depression; Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964); or Generation X (born 1965-1980). Cohort effects for prevalence of abdominal obesity were estimated using the median polish method with data collected from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1988 and 2008. Respondents were aged 20-74 years.
After taking into account age effects and ubiquitous secular changes, the Silent Generation and Generation X had higher cohort-specific prevalence of abdominal obesity than the Baby Boomers. Effects were more pronounced in women than men.
This work presents a novel finding: evidence that the birth cohorts of the post-World War II Baby Boom appeared to have uniquely low cohort effects on abdominal obesity. The growing prosperity of the post-World War II US may have exposed the baby-boom generation to lower levels of psychosocial and socioeconomic stress than the previous or subsequent generations. By identifying factors associated with the Baby Boomers' low cohort-specific sensitivity to the obesogenic environment, the obesity prevention community can identify early-life factors that can protect future generations from excess weight gain.
腹部肥胖可预测多种不良健康后果。在过去几十年中，像美国这样的工业化国家腹部肥胖的患病率显著增加。然而，此前尚无分析评估腹部肥胖是否存在出生队列效应。评估队列效应对于预测未来健康趋势和了解过去人群水平趋势是必要的。
本分析评估了 20 世纪 20 年代至 40 年代出生的“沉默一代”、大萧条时期的“婴儿潮一代”（1946 年至 1964 年出生）或 20 世纪 60 年代至 80 年代出生的“X 一代”是否存在腹部肥胖的出生队列效应。采用中值抛光法，使用 1988 年至 2008 年全国健康与营养调查（NHANES）的数据，评估了腹部肥胖患病率的队列效应。研究对象年龄在 20 至 74 岁之间。
在考虑到年龄效应和普遍的长期变化后，“沉默一代”和“X 一代”的腹部肥胖特定队列患病率高于“婴儿潮一代”。女性的影响比男性更明显。
本研究提出了一个新的发现：二战后婴儿潮时期出生的队列似乎对腹部肥胖具有独特的低队列效应。二战后美国的日益繁荣可能使婴儿潮一代接触到的心理社会和社会经济压力低于前几代或后几代。通过确定与婴儿潮一代对肥胖环境的低特定队列敏感性相关的因素，肥胖预防界可以确定可以保护后代免受体重增加的早期生活因素。
