Simultaneity of risk behaviors for obesity in adults in the capitals of Brazil

The scope of this study was to verify the association between risk behaviors and obesity in adults (18 to 59 years of age) in Brazilian capitals. It involved a cross-sectional population-based study conducted by telephone interview. The self-reported variables were obesity, defined by weight and height (BMI >= 30 kg/m(2)) and risk behaviors: physical inactivity (<= 149 minutes/week), excess sedentarism (>= 4 hours/day), frequent consumption of sweets (>= 5 days/week) and meat with fat and/or chicken with skin (>= 1 day/week). The simultaneity of risk behaviors was analyzed for reasons of observed and expected prevalence. The Poisson and multinomial logistic regressions were used in crude analyses and adjusted for sociodemographic factors. Among the 35,448 adults, the simultaneous consumption of meat with fat, excess sedentarism and physical inactivity (PR: 1.94, 95% CI: 1.45, 2.60), as well as the presence of the four risk behaviors (PR: 1.72, 95% CI: 1.16, 2.53) were associated with obesity in men. In women, the simultaneous consumption of sweets and meat with fat (PR: 1.77, 95% CI: 1.19, 2.66) was also associated with the outcome. In both sexes, there was an increase in the tendency of obesity according to the sum total of risk behaviors.