Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University, Umeå, SE -901 87, Sweden.
Int J Equity Health. 2023 Aug 22;22(1):159. doi: 10.1186/s12939-023-01973-9.
Being overweight and obesity are considered serious public health concerns worldwide. At the population level, factors contributing to overweight as well as the differences in overweight between men and women in terms of prevalence or associated factors are relatively well-known. What is less known is what explains the inequalities in overweight between men and women. In this study, we examined the contribution of material, behavioural, and psychosocial factors in explaining the gender differences in overweight among adults in northern Sweden.
This study was based on the 2018 Swedish Health on Equal Terms survey, which was carried out in Sweden's four northernmost regions. The analytical sample consisted of 20,855 participants (47% men) aged 20-84 years. Overweight (including obesity) was the outcome, and the selected explanatory variables were grouped according to three theoretical perspectives: material, behavioural and psychosocial. Descriptive statistics and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition were applied for analysing the data.
Our study showed that the prevalence of overweight was 64% and 52% among men and women, respectively. It, therefore, revealed a gender gap in overweight people of 11.7% points with explanatory factors accounting for 39% of that gap. This gender gap in overweight people was mostly explained by behavioural variables (19.3%), followed by the materialistic variables and age accounting for 16.2% and 3.1%, respectively. Specifically, having low education, being in the lowest income quintile, alcohol drinking and snus usage contributed to explain 8.4%, 8.9%, 2.8% and 6.3% of the gender difference, respectively.
We found a considerable gender inequality in overweight between men and women. The findings highlight that future overweight prevention initiatives would benefit from targeting the uncovered contributing factors to reduce gender inequalities in overweight people.
超重和肥胖被认为是全球严重的公共卫生问题。在人群层面上，导致超重的因素以及男性和女性超重的流行率或相关因素之间的差异已经相对较为明确。不太清楚的是，是什么解释了男性和女性超重之间的不平等。在这项研究中，我们研究了物质、行为和心理社会因素对解释瑞典北部成年人超重性别差异的贡献。
这项研究基于 2018 年瑞典健康平等调查，该调查在瑞典最北部的四个地区进行。分析样本包括 20855 名年龄在 20-84 岁的参与者（47%为男性）。超重（包括肥胖）是结果，所选解释变量根据三个理论观点分组：物质、行为和心理社会。采用描述性统计和 Blinder-Oaxaca 分解法分析数据。
我们的研究表明，男性和女性的超重患病率分别为 64%和 52%，因此，超重人群中的性别差距为 11.7%，其中解释因素占 39%。超重人群中的这种性别差距主要由行为变量（19.3%）解释，其次是物质变量和年龄，分别占 16.2%和 3.1%。具体来说，受教育程度低、收入最低五分位数、饮酒和使用鼻烟分别解释了 8.4%、8.9%、2.8%和 6.3%的性别差异。
我们发现男性和女性之间存在相当大的超重性别不平等。研究结果表明，未来的超重预防计划将受益于针对未发现的促成因素，以减少超重人群中的性别不平等。
