Sares-Jäske Laura, Tapanainen Heli, Valsta Liisa, Haario Peppi, Männistö Satu, Vaalavuo Maria
Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare Helsinki Finland.
Public Health Chall. 2024 Mar 15;3(1):e163. doi: 10.1002/puh2.163. eCollection 2024 Mar.
Climate change, health inequalities and obesity are considerable public health challenges of the 21st century. Red and processed meat (RPM) consumption is associated with an increased risk of obesity and with higher climate impact. At the same time, educational inequalities exist not only in RPM consumption and obesity but also in other health behaviours. Thus, we investigated whether educational inequalities exist in the association between RPM consumption and obesity, while also considering health behaviours (physical activity, vegetable, legume and fruit consumption, alcohol consumption and smoking) as potential confounding and effect modifying factors.
The FinHealth 2017 Study data, including 4494 participants aged 18-74 years, were used. A validated food frequency questionnaire was employed to determine dietary intake. Height and weight were measured by trained study nurses. Linear and logistic regression models were used.
Odds of obesity increased along with RPM consumption in women ( < 0.001) and men ( < 0.001) and in each educational group regardless of other unfavourable health behaviours. Only in men with basic education were the differences between RPM consumption categories not statistically significant. Compared to those with high education and the lowest RPM consumption, those with basic education and the highest RPM consumption had multiple odds of obesity (odds ratio (95% confidence interval) among women: 7.5 (2.7-20.4); among men: 5.3 (2.5-11.1)).
High RPM consumption appears to be associated with obesity independently of other unfavourable health behaviours or education, yet the odds are higher with basic education. Targeting unhealthy dietary patterns with heavy ecological burden could help reduce both health inequalities and mitigate climate change.
气候变化、健康不平等和肥胖是21世纪相当严峻的公共卫生挑战。红肉和加工肉类（RPM）的消费与肥胖风险增加以及更高的气候影响相关。与此同时，教育不平等不仅存在于RPM消费和肥胖方面，还存在于其他健康行为中。因此，我们调查了RPM消费与肥胖之间的关联中是否存在教育不平等，同时将健康行为（体育活动、蔬菜、豆类和水果消费、饮酒和吸烟）视为潜在的混杂因素和效应修饰因素。
使用了2017年芬兰健康研究数据，包括4494名年龄在18 - 74岁之间的参与者。采用经过验证的食物频率问卷来确定饮食摄入量。身高和体重由经过培训的研究护士测量。使用线性和逻辑回归模型。
无论其他不利健康行为如何，女性（<0.001）和男性（<0.001）以及每个教育组中，肥胖几率都随着RPM消费的增加而增加。只有在接受基础教育的男性中，RPM消费类别之间的差异没有统计学意义。与受过高等教育且RPM消费最低的人相比，接受基础教育且RPM消费最高的人肥胖几率增加了数倍（女性的优势比（95%置信区间）：7.5（2.7 - 20.4）；男性：5.3（2.5 - 11.1））。
高RPM消费似乎与肥胖相关，独立于其他不利健康行为或教育因素，但接受基础教育者的肥胖几率更高。针对具有沉重生态负担的不健康饮食模式采取措施，可能有助于减少健康不平等并缓解气候变化。
