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Weight Gain, Overweight, and Obesity: Determinants and Health Outcomes from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health

  • Etiology of Obesity (MS Westerterp-Plantenga, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Recent estimates suggest that 35.3 % of adult Australians are overweight and a further 27.5 % are obese. The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH) is a prospective study of women’s health that commenced in Australia in 1996. The study recruited approximately 40,000 women in three birth cohorts, 1973–1978, 1946–1951 and 1921–1926, who have since been followed up approximately every three years using self-report surveys. Six surveys have been completed to date. This review aims to describe the changes in weight and weight status over time in the three ALSWH cohorts, and to review and summarise the published findings to date relating to the determinants and health consequences of weight gain, overweight and obesity. Future plans for the ALSWH include on-going surveys for all cohorts, with a seventh survey in 2013–2015, and establishment of a new cohort of women born in 1990–1995, which is currently being recruited.

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References

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Acknowledgments

The research on which this paper is based was conducted as part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, The University of Newcastle and The University of Queensland. We are grateful to the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing for funding and to the women who provided the survey data. SG was supported by a program grant from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (569940). The funding sources had no involvement in the study design, data collection, analyses and interpretation, or writing of the manuscript.

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Conflict of Interest

SR Gomersall, AJ Dobson, and WJ Brown declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Research on Exercise, Physical Activity and Health, School of Human Movement Studies, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    S. R. Gomersall & W. J. Brown

  2. Centre for Longitudinal and Life Course Research, School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Herston, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    A. J. Dobson

  3. Centre for Research on Exercise, Physical Activity and Health, School of Human Movement Studies, The University of Queensland, Level 5, Building 26B, Blair Drive, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    S. R. Gomersall

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  1. S. R. Gomersall
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Correspondence to S. R. Gomersall.

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Gomersall, S.R., Dobson, A.J. & Brown, W.J. Weight Gain, Overweight, and Obesity: Determinants and Health Outcomes from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. Curr Obes Rep 3, 46–53 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13679-013-0077-4

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