ABSTRACT
Air pollution and obesity are two of the main challenges that need to be addressed in developed countries. This paper analyses the relationship between obesity/overweight rates and outdoor (ambient) air quality in Spain. The results confirm, through logistic regressions, that the typical profile of an obese/overweight person is that of an older man. Air pollution does not have a clear negative effect on obesity/overweight for our sample selection (OR: 0.99; N = 23,089, men and women aged 15 and over). Similarly, there does not appear to be an urban pollution/obesity pattern. However, we find a detrimental effect for the group of elderly people, perhaps linked to a negative exposure duration effect (OR: 1.11; for those aged ≥55 years, N = 10,932). In our study we argue that public policies should address lifestyles and at the same time reduce specific air pollutants to enhance population health and wellbeing.
Acknowledgments
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Authors’ contributions
All the authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript and read and approved the final manuscript.
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Compliance with Ethical Standards
mailto:[email protected]. Ethics approval is not required for this paper, since we did not collect data with personal information. The paper is the result of research carried out independently by the authors. No plagiarism and no conflict of interest can be associated with this research.
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