Objectives: to evaluate sociodemographic and behavioural factors associated with overweight and obesity among immigrant population in Italy.
Design: cross-sectional study on the representative sample of foreign population resident in Italy of the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) survey "Social conditions and integration of foreign citizens in Italy", carried out in 2011-2012.
Setting and participants: the study was conducted on a subsample of 15,195 foreigners aged 18-64 years, corresponding to an estimate of 2,986,202 foreign citizens among the resident population in Italy.
Main outcome measures: study outcome is the presence of overweight and obesity, conditions identified according to WHO criteria, namely body mass index (BMI) values ≥25 kg/m2 and ≥30 kg/m2, respectively. BMI was calculated based on weight (expressed in kg) and height (expressed in cm) information collected through the questionnaire. A multivariate log-binomial model was used to evaluate association between overweight/obesity and the following factors: gender, age, origin, length of stay in Italy, occupational status, presence of Italians in the household, educational level, dietary, smoking habits.
Results: among foreigners in Italy, 30.9% is overweight (40.3% among men and 23.2% among women) and 7.5% is obese (no differences were found between males and females). The multivariate log-binomial model shows lower probability of being overweight/obese among women (PRR: 0.65) and among families with at least one Italian person (PRR: 0.80); probability increases with age: 35-45 years show a PRR of 1.48; 46-55 years a PRR of 1.73; 56-64 years a PRR of 1.77. The probability is higher if the length of stay in Italy is between 5 and 10 years (PRR: 1.11) or longer than 11 years (PRR: 1.09); it is higher also among not employed (PRR: 1.05) and less educated people (PRR: 1.06). If compared to European people, probability is lower among people who come from Sub-Saharan Africa (PRR: 0.89) and Central-Western Asia (PRR: 0.93), whereas it is higher among people from the Americas (PRR: 1.08).
Conclusions: overweight/obesity prevalence among immigrants has the same dimensions as for Italians. This is a worrying result, also considering the increasing demographic weight of second-generation immigrants. Multifactorial public health interventions in each community are advisable, both acting on dietary habits and on the promotion of physical activity, even trough culturally oriented messages.