Study finds marriage triples risk of obesity for men

By Stephen Beech

Getting married triples the risk of obesity for men, according to new research.

Tying the knot doesn't raise the risk of clinical obesity for women, say scientists.

However, a Polish study found that marriage increases the risk of being overweight by 62% in men and 39% in women, compared to single people of the same age.

And each extra year of age also increases the risk of being overweight and obese in both sexes - but more so in women, according to the findings.

The study, due to be presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Malaga, Spain, in May, was conducted by Dr. Alicja Cicha-Mikołajczyk and her colleagues at the National Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw.

She said that being overweight or obese has been identified as risk factor for cardiovascular disease and cancer which are among the main causes of death in Poland and all over the world.

Previous research has shown that around two-thirds of Polish adults are overweight, including 29.2% who are clinically obese.

Dr. Cicha-Mikołajczyk and her team looked for relationships between increased body weight and health literacy, socio demographic and other risk factors in the new study.

They analyzed the relationship between many risk factors simultaneously in a group of 2,405 people adults with an average age of 50. Just over a third (35.3%) were classified as normal weight, 38.3% were overweight and 26.4% were obese.

The research team found most of the participants had at least secondary education (59%), adequate health literacy (55%), and at least moderate social support (50%), while 15% reported depression.

Cardiovascular disease was present in 12% of those of normal weight, 18% of the overweight participants and 28% of the clinically obese.

The findings showed that being married was associated with being overweight in both men and women, with a 62% increased risk compared to unmarried men, and a 39% increased risk compared to unmarried women.

A much stronger relationship was found for marriage and obesity in men, with married men 3.2 times more likely to be clinically obese than unmarried men.

However, the research team found no statistically significant difference for obesity risk between married and unmarried women.

They suggest the lack of an association for women could be explained by "cultural differences" in attitudes towards obesity in men and women.

Having inadequate health literacy increased the risk of obesity by 43% in women while reporting at least borderline depression doubled the risk of obesity, but the same relationships were not found in men.

Dr. Cicha-Mikołajczyk said: “Age and marital status have an undeniable impact on living with overweight or obesity in adulthood regardless of sex.

"In turn, inadequate health literacy and having at least borderline depression were associated with obesity in women."

She added: "It appears from our results that the dissemination of health knowledge and health promotion across the lifespan could reduce the worrying phenomenon of increasing levels of obesity.”

The study also found that age was an independent risk factor of overweight and obesity in both sexes.

Each year of increased age increased the risk of overweight by 3% in men and 4% in women, and the risk of obesity by 4% in men and 6% in women.

The study also found that women living in communities of less than 8,000 people were 46% more likely to live with obesity and 42% more likely to be overweight.

The research team is still analyzing the potential reasons for that, but no relationship was found between community size and being overweight or obese in men.