Comparison of different overweight and obesity indexes in young adult Spanish workers

Introduction
Obesity is a major public health problem in both developed and underdeveloped countries due to its high prevalence and the complications it causes, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal and psychological disorders and avoidable lost life years. Objectives. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity in young Spanish adults using different scales.

Material and methods
Retrospective and cross-sectional study in 136,821 Spanish workers 18 to 34 years of age from different labour sectors. In this group, different scales related to overweight and obesity, such as BMI, waist-to-height ratio, and body fat estimators, such as CUNBAE, ECORE-BF, relative fat mass, Deuremberg formula and Palafolls formula, among others, were evaluated.

Results
12.03% of women and 12.15% of men were obese according to BMI. The prevalence of obesity due to excess body fat with the gold standard CUN BAE scale was 28.09% in women and 27.11% in men. Most overweight and obesity scales using anthropometric parameters show a higher prevalence in men, while scales using body fat show a higher prevalence of obesity in women.

Conclusions
The prevalence of medium and high values of the different scales used to assess overweight and obesity can be considered high in the active population between 18 and 34 years of age, which implies secondary pathologies, loss of quality of life and premature death.