Obesity: A public health problem in Ireland?

We examined the prevalence of different categories of body weight in a random sample of men and women aged 35 to 64 years studied in 1985 in County Kilkenny, Ireland. The largest group was those classified as overweight — 51.1% of men and 44.7 % of women. There were 13.7 % of men and 19.2% of women in the obese category. The obese were older but the distribution by social class did not differ significantly from the non-obese. Obese women had significantly more children born alive and a higher prevalence of positive angina questionnaire than those who were not obese.