Influence of urbanization level and Gross Domestic Product on the prevalence of adolescent obesity in Poland

Introduction. Obesity is considered as a major disease of twenty-first century civilization. Its occurrence in Poland and worldwide has been increasing steadily for many years. Several factors play an important role in the development of overweight and obesity. In addition to the genetic factors and those associated with diseases of the endocrine system and nervous system, the rapidly growing number of obese people is due to improper nutrition.Objectives. In this paper, authors attempt to justify the prevalence of obesity in Poland among the population of adolescent and young adults aged 15 – 29 years of age, depending on the urbanization level and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of voivodeships.Methods. Voivodeships, as an entity of regional autonomy, were divided into two groups according to urbanization level and GDP per capita. From the total population of each voivodeship population, groups of overweight and obese people aged 15–29 were selected. The population group aged 15–29 was divided into male and female subgroups. Each subgroup was compared in the different voivodeships, depending on the urbanization level and GDP per capita.Results. The study shows that there is a strong linear relationship between the prevalence of obesity and GDP per capita of each examined region. During the study, the correlation between the level of prevalence of obesity and urbanization level produced a negative result.Conclusion. The high level of regional economic development in the economic transformation states has a significant impact on the increase in the percentage of people with overweight and obesity in the population aged 15–29. Gender and place of residence (urban or rural areas) did not show significant correlation with the occurrence of overweight and obesity in the study group of the population.