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The Obesity Epidemic in the Veterans Health Administration: Prevalence Among Key
Populations of Women and Men Veterans
#MMPMID28271422
Breland JY
; Phibbs CS
; Hoggatt KJ
; Washington DL
; Lee J
; Haskell S
; Uchendu US
; Saechao FS
; Zephyrin LC
; Frayne SM
J Gen Intern Med
2017[Apr]; 32
(Suppl 1
): 11-17
PMID28271422
show ga
BACKGROUND: Most US adults are overweight or obese. Understanding differences in
obesity prevalence across subpopulations could facilitate the development and
dissemination of weight management services. OBJECTIVES: To inform Veterans
Health Administration (VHA) weight management initiatives, we describe obesity
prevalence among subpopulations of VHA patients. DESIGN: Cross-sectional
descriptive analyses of fiscal year 2014 (FY2014) national VHA administrative and
clinical data, stratified by gender. Differences ?5% higher than the population
mean were considered clinically significant. PARTICIPANTS: Veteran VHA primary
care patients with a valid weight within ±365 days of their first FY2014 primary
care visit, and a valid height (98% of primary care patients). MAIN MEASURES: We
used VHA vital signs data to ascertain height and weight and calculate body mass
index, and VHA outpatient, inpatient, and fee basis data to identify
sociodemographic- and comorbidity-based subpopulations. KEY RESULTS: Among nearly
five million primary care patients (347,112 women, 4,567,096 men), obesity
prevalence was 41% (women 44%, men 41%), and overweight prevalence was 37% (women
31%, men 38%). Across the VHA's 140 facilities, obesity prevalence ranged from
28% to 49%. Among gender-stratified subpopulations, obesity prevalence was high
among veterans under age 65 (age 18-44: women 40%, men 46%; age 45-64: women 49%,
men 48%). Obesity prevalence varied across racial/ethnic and comorbidity
subpopulations, with high obesity prevalence among black women (51%), women with
schizophrenia (56%), and women and men with diabetes (68%, 56%). CONCLUSIONS:
Overweight and obesity are common among veterans served by the VHA. VHA's weight
management initiatives have the potential to avert long-term morbidity arising
from obesity-related conditions. High-risk groups-such as black women veterans,
women veterans with schizophrenia, younger veterans, and Native Hawaiian/Other
Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native veterans-may require
particular attention to ensure that systems improvement efforts at the population
level do not inadvertently increase health disparities.
|Adult
[MESH]
|Age Distribution
[MESH]
|Aged
[MESH]
|Black or African American/statistics & numerical data
[MESH]
|Body Mass Index
[MESH]
|Comorbidity
[MESH]
|Cross-Sectional Studies
[MESH]
|Female
[MESH]
|Humans
[MESH]
|Male
[MESH]
|Middle Aged
[MESH]
|Obesity/*epidemiology/physiopathology
[MESH]
|Overweight/epidemiology/physiopathology
[MESH]
|Prevalence
[MESH]
|Sex Distribution
[MESH]
|United States/epidemiology
[MESH]
|Veterans Health/ethnology/*statistics & numerical data
[MESH]
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