The prevalence of overweight and obesity among Croatian hospitalized coronary heart disease patients.

The aim of this article was to investigate the prevalence of overweight and obesity using selected anthropometric variables in a sample of hospitalized coronary heart disease (CHD) patients in Croatia (N=1,298). Prevalence of overweight and obesity in surveyed patient population was high: 48.2% of participants were overweight and 28.6% were obese according to their body mass index; measured through waist-to-hip ratio 54.5% of participants were centrally obese. These data on prevalences of overweight, obesity and central obesity show that although there are some reassuring trends, there is still considerable amount of work to be done if the prevalence of this cardiovascular risk factor is to be reduced further among Croatian CHD patients. While the prevalence of obesity seems to be on the decline, the prevalence of overweight is rising, which may be just an early warning sign of an incoming wave of obesity epidemic in future years.