A new study, published in the peer-reviewed medical journal International Journal of Obesity, has claimed that the altitude of where you live has an important impact on your wellbeing, especially with regard to your weight. Researchers from the University of the Health Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University and Obetech Obesity Research Centre, found that people who lived at less than 500m above sea level (such as New Yorkers) were much more likely to be obese than people who lived 3,000m or more above sea level (such as people who lived in Denver, Colorado).
In the US, obesity seems to be most prevalent in the south-eastern states and the Midwest, and less so in the ‘mountain west’ states, and so the study is in-keeping with this perception. According to the researchers, it is biologically plausible that altitude affects your wellness, as theories indicate that, as a response to living in higher places, your body’s metabolic demand increases, and children also grow less.
The study looked at the geographic distribution of obesity across the US, in order to see how it related to elevation level, temperature and urbanisation, while also adjusting for other behavioural and demographic factors. Using data from the Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a nationwide telephone health survey representative of the US population, the researchers gathered information on diet, physical activity, and demographics (age, sex, ethnicity etc.)
Based on the data of 422,603 US citizens, the researchers found that men and women living at less than 500m above sea level had 5.1 and 3.9 times the odds of being obese compared with those living at 3,000m, respectively. This led them to conclude that, after adjusting for urbanisation, temperature, diet, physical activity, smoking and demographic factors, obesity prevalence in the United States is inversely associated with elevation.
Yet this US-centred study has produced different results to similar ones from other countries. Researchers in Peru, for example, have demonstrated that its residents live at a high altitude but, in spite of this, have higher than average rates of obesity-related diseases. Though this latest study is able to show a link between obesity levels and altitude, it is unable to prove that altitude has a direct effect on BMI or say what biological process causes this.
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