Abstract
Objectives: To determine the relationships between body mass index (BMI) and diet, social and behavioural factors among adult Jamaicans of African origin.
Design: Cross-sectional.
Setting: Urban communities in Jamaica, West Indies.
Subjects: Three-hundred and sixty-three males and 561 females of African origin, aged 25–74 y.
Results: Women had higher mean BMIs (27.5±6.4 kg/m2) than men (23.4±4.3 kg/m2); 30.7% of women compared with 6.7% of men were obese. There was a tendency for obese men to have higher percentage of intakes from fat and less from carbohydrate, and women reported diets in which the percentage contribution of protein increased significantly with increasing BMI. In multivariate analyses, BMI was not explained by energy but was associated with protein intakes in females only. Predictors of relative weight were inversely related. Social (marital status) and behavioural (cigarette smoking) factors predicted BMI in both genders; older age in men and increased fibre intakes in women were associated with lower BMI.
Conclusions: Social and behavioural factors are important determinants of body weight. Further investigations are needed which consider factors such as physical activity, genetic and other environmental variables as predictors of relative weight.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Astrup, A (1999). Macronutrient balances and obesity: the role of diet and physical activity. Pub. Health Nutr., 2, (3a) 341–347.
Baecke, JAH, Van Staveren, WA & Burema, J (1983). Food consumption, physical exercise and body fatness in young Dutch adults. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 37, 278–286.
Ballard-Barbash, R, Graubard, I, Kreb-Smith, SM, Schatzkin, A & Thompson, FE (1996). Contribution of dieting to the inverse association between energy intake and body mass index. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr., 59, 98–106.
Bolton-Smith, C & Woodaward, M (1993). The prevalence of overweight and obesity in different fat and sugar consumption groups. Proc. Nutr. Soc., 52, 383A
Blundell, JE & MacDiarmid, JI (1997). Passive overconsumption: fat intake and short-term energy balance. Ann. NY Acad. Sci., 827, 392–407.
Chu, S, Kolonel, LN, Hankin, JH & Lee, J (1984). A comparison of frequency and quantitative dietary methods for epidemiologic studies of diet and disease. Am. J. Epidemiol., 119, 323–334.
Colditz, GA, Willett, WC, Stampfer, MJ, London, SJ, Segal, MR & Speizer, FE (1990). Patterns of weight change and their relation to diet in a cohort of healthy women. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 51, 1100–1105.
Cooper, R, Rotimi, C, Ataman, S, McGee, D, Osotimehin, B, Kadiri, S, Muna, W, Kingue, S, Fraser, H, Forrester, T, Bennett, F & Wilks, R (1997). The prevalence of hypertension in seven populations of West African origin. Am. J. Public Health, 87, 160–168.
Cruickshank, JK, Mbanya, JC, Wilks, R, Balkau, B, Forrester, T, Anderson, SG, Mennen, L, Forhan, A, Riste, & McFarlane-Anderson, N (2001). Hypertension in four African-origin populations: current ‘Rule of Halves’, quality of blood pressure control and attributable risk of cardiovascular disease. J. Hypertens., 19, 41–46.
Dreon, DM, Frey-Hewitt, B, Ellsworth, N, Williams, PT, Terry, RB & Wood, PD (1988). Dietary fat: carbohydrate ratio and obesity in middle-aged men. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 47, 995–1000.
Drewnowski, A (1994). Mechanism of appetite and body weight regulation. In:Obesity: Pathophysiology, Phychology and Treatment, ed. GI Blackburn & BS Kanders, pp110–122, New York: Chapman & Hall
French, SA, Perry, CL, Leon, GR & Fulkerson, JA (1994). Weight concerns, dieting behaviour and smoking initiation among adolescents: a prospective study. Am. J. Public Health, 84, 1818–1820.
Jackson, M, Walker, S, Cade, J, Forrester, T, Cruickshank, K & Wilks, J (2001). Reproducibility and validity of a quantitative food frequency questionnaire among Jamaicans of African origin. Pub. Health Nutr., 4, (5) 971–980.
James, WPT (1996). The epidemiology of obesity. In:The Origins and Consequences of Obesity, Chichester: Wiley
Klesges, RC, Klesges, LM, Haddock, CK & Eck, LH (1992). A longitudinal analysis of the impact of dietary intake and physical activity on weight change in adults. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 55, 818–822.
Krombout, D (1983). Energy and macronutrient intake in lean and obese middle-aged men (the Zutphen study). Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 37, 295–299.
Lee-Han, H, McGuire, V & Boyd, NF (1989). A review of the methods used by studies of dietary measurement. J. Clin. Epidemiol., 42, (3) 269–279.
Lemeshow, S & Robinson, D (1985). Surveys to measure programme coverage and impact: a review of the methodology used by the Expanded Programme on Immunization. World Health Stat. Q., 38, 65–75.
Martin-Moreno, JMM, Boyle, P, Gorgojo, L, Maisonneuve, P, Fernandez-Rodriquez, JC, Salvini, S & Willett, W (1993). Development and validation of a food frequency questionnaire in Spain. Intl. J. Epidemiol., 22, (3) 512–519.
Martorell, R, Kettel Khan, L, Hughes, ML & Grummer-Strawn, LM (2000). Obesity in women from developing countries. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr., 54, 247–252.
Mbanya, JC, Cruickshank, JK, Forrester, T, Balkau, B, Ngogang, JY, Riste, L, Forhan, A, Anderson, NM, Bennett, F & Wilks, R (1999). Standardised comparison of glucose tolerance in West African origin populations: rural/urban Cameroon, Jamaica and Caribbean migrants to Britain. Diabetes Care, 22, 434–440.
Mertz, W, Tsui, JC, Judd, JT, Reiser, S, Hallfrisch, J, Morris, ER, Steele, PD & Lashley, E (1991). What are people really eating: The relation between energy intake derived from estimated diet records and intake determined to maintain body weight. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 54, 291–295.
Miller, WC, Linderman, AK, Wallace, J & Niederpruem, M (1990). Diet composition, energy intake and exercise in relation to body fat in men and women. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 52, 426–430.
Mokhtar, N, Elati, J, Chabir, R, Bour, A, Elkari, K, Schlossman, NP, Caballero, B & Aguenaou, H (2001). Diet culture and obesity in Northern Africa. J. Nutr., 131, 887S–892S.
Myers, RJ, Klesges, RC, Eck, LH, Hanson, CL & Klem, ML (1988). Accuracy of self reports of food intake in obese and normal-weight individuals: effect of obesity of self reports of dieting intake in adult females. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 48, 1248–1251.
Pena, M & Freire, WB (1996). Report of a Seminar–Workshop on Obesity and Poverty in Latin America, Havana, Cuba, 15–19 May, 1995. Pan American Health Organization document, PAHO/HPP/HPN 96.02 WHO Regional Office
Perkins, KA, Epstein, LH, Stiller, RL, Marks, BL & Jacobs, RG (1989). Acute effects of nicotine on resting metabolic rate in cigarette smokers. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 50, 545–550.
Pomerleau, J, McKeigue, PM & Chaturvedi, N (1999). Factors associated with obesity in South Asian, Afro-Caribbean and European women. Int. J. Obes. Relat. Metab. Disord., 23, 25–33.
Popkin, BM (1994). The Nutrition transition in low income countries: an emerging crisis. Nutr. Rev., 52, 258–298.
Ravussin, E, Fontveille, A, Swinburn, BA & Bogardus, C (1993). Risk factors for the development of obesity. Ann. NY Acad. Sci., 683, 141–150.
Rimm, EB, Giovannucci, EL, Stampfer, MJ, Colditz, GA, Latin, LB & Willett, WC (1992). Reproducibility and validity of an expanded self-administered semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire among male professionals. Am. J. Epidemiol., 135, 1114–1126.
Rissanen, AM, Heliovaara, M, Knekt, P, Reunanen, A & Aromaa, A (1991). Determinants of weight gain and overweight in adult Finns. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr., 45, 419–424.
SPSS (1999). Statistical Package for Social Scientists, version 7.0 Chicago, IL: SPSS Inc
Stunkard, AJ (1988). Some perspectives on human obesity: its causes. Bull. NY Acad. Med., 64, 902–909.
Tucker, LA & Kano, MJ (1992). Dietary fat and body fat: a multivariate study of 205 adult females. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 56, 616–622.
WHO (1990). Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Disease, Technical Report Series no. 797 Geneva: WHO
WHO (1995). Physical Status: the Use and Interpretation of Anthropomety, Report by a WHO expert committee. Technical Report Series no: 854 Geneva: WHO
Willett, W (1990). Nutritional Epidemiology, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Guarantor: M Jackson
Contributors: Contributions to the manuscript were as follows: All authors contributed to the design of the study and preparation of the manuscript. MJ and RW were responsible for the execution of the study, and MJ and SW for the statitical analyses
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jackson, M., Walker, S., Forrester, T. et al. Social and dietary determinants of body mass index of adult Jamaicans of African origin. Eur J Clin Nutr 57, 621–627 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601584
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601584
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Use of a food frequency questionnaire to assess diets of Jamaican adults: validation and correlation with biomarkers
Nutrition Journal (2011)
-
Inaccuracies in food and physical activity diaries of obese subjects: complementary evidence from doubly labeled water and co-twin assessments
International Journal of Obesity (2010)