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Body mass index and associated factors among refugees living in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: This study aims to determine: (i) information on overweight and obesity, represented by body mass index using measured anthropometric data, among refugees living in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, (ii) how body mass index changed throughout the migratory journey to Germany, and (iii) fa...

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Autores principales: Belau, Matthias Hans, Bassil, Muriel, Laukamp, Annika, Kraemer, Alexander
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8390186/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34433497
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40795-021-00453-z
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author Belau, Matthias Hans
Bassil, Muriel
Laukamp, Annika
Kraemer, Alexander
author_facet Belau, Matthias Hans
Bassil, Muriel
Laukamp, Annika
Kraemer, Alexander
author_sort Belau, Matthias Hans
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: This study aims to determine: (i) information on overweight and obesity, represented by body mass index using measured anthropometric data, among refugees living in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, (ii) how body mass index changed throughout the migratory journey to Germany, and (iii) factors influencing body mass index. METHODS: The study utilizes data from the FlueGe health study, a cross-sectional study conducted by Bielefeld University. The data was collected between February and November 2018 in which participants were recruited in several cities in North Rhine-Westphalia (N = 326). We analyzed differences in body mass index before the escape, upon arrival, and since arrival as well as correlations between body mass index since arrival and explanatory variables using linear regression models. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of overweight and obesity before the escape (t0), upon arrival (t1) and since arrival (t2) were 55.2% (150/272), 45.6% (133/292) and 54.8% (171/312), respectively, with 16.2% (44/272), 12.0% (35/292) and 16.0% (50/312) being obese. There was a significant change between t0 and t1 (p < 0.001), and between t1 and t2 (p < 0.001), but no change over time (between t0 and t2, p = 0.713). Results from multivariate linear regression showed that high education, male sex, higher body mass index before the escape, Iranian or Iraqi nationality, and sobriety were the significant factors for body mass index since arrival. However, when focusing on those who have reported weight gain only, higher body mass index before the escape, male sex, and Iraqi nationality were the significant factors. CONCLUSIONS: Overweight and obesity were common among refugees after settlement in Germany. In particular, sociodemographic factors were associated with a higher body mass index since arrival. Thus, it is important to develop and apply nutrition-related intervention programs for adult refugees that are culturally appropriate and tailored to education level and sex.
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spelling pubmed-83901862021-08-27 Body mass index and associated factors among refugees living in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany: a cross-sectional study Belau, Matthias Hans Bassil, Muriel Laukamp, Annika Kraemer, Alexander BMC Nutr Research Article BACKGROUND: This study aims to determine: (i) information on overweight and obesity, represented by body mass index using measured anthropometric data, among refugees living in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, (ii) how body mass index changed throughout the migratory journey to Germany, and (iii) factors influencing body mass index. METHODS: The study utilizes data from the FlueGe health study, a cross-sectional study conducted by Bielefeld University. The data was collected between February and November 2018 in which participants were recruited in several cities in North Rhine-Westphalia (N = 326). We analyzed differences in body mass index before the escape, upon arrival, and since arrival as well as correlations between body mass index since arrival and explanatory variables using linear regression models. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of overweight and obesity before the escape (t0), upon arrival (t1) and since arrival (t2) were 55.2% (150/272), 45.6% (133/292) and 54.8% (171/312), respectively, with 16.2% (44/272), 12.0% (35/292) and 16.0% (50/312) being obese. There was a significant change between t0 and t1 (p < 0.001), and between t1 and t2 (p < 0.001), but no change over time (between t0 and t2, p = 0.713). Results from multivariate linear regression showed that high education, male sex, higher body mass index before the escape, Iranian or Iraqi nationality, and sobriety were the significant factors for body mass index since arrival. However, when focusing on those who have reported weight gain only, higher body mass index before the escape, male sex, and Iraqi nationality were the significant factors. CONCLUSIONS: Overweight and obesity were common among refugees after settlement in Germany. In particular, sociodemographic factors were associated with a higher body mass index since arrival. Thus, it is important to develop and apply nutrition-related intervention programs for adult refugees that are culturally appropriate and tailored to education level and sex. BioMed Central 2021-08-26 /pmc/articles/PMC8390186/ /pubmed/34433497 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40795-021-00453-z Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research Article
Belau, Matthias Hans
Bassil, Muriel
Laukamp, Annika
Kraemer, Alexander
Body mass index and associated factors among refugees living in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany: a cross-sectional study
title Body mass index and associated factors among refugees living in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany: a cross-sectional study
title_full Body mass index and associated factors among refugees living in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany: a cross-sectional study
title_fullStr Body mass index and associated factors among refugees living in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany: a cross-sectional study
title_full_unstemmed Body mass index and associated factors among refugees living in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany: a cross-sectional study
title_short Body mass index and associated factors among refugees living in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany: a cross-sectional study
title_sort body mass index and associated factors among refugees living in north rhine-westphalia, germany: a cross-sectional study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8390186/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34433497
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40795-021-00453-z
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