mean age for the entire obese sub-sample was 54.8 ( 15.5), compared to 45,8 ( 18,4) for the non-obese participants. 40.4% of the obese participants suffered from at least one comorbid disease such as hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidaemia, compared to a much lower 21.1% for the remaining sample. The unadjusted SF-12 scores for obese and non-obese participants were: PCS 44.9 ( 12.0) and 50.5 ( 9.8) (Mann-Whitney, P 0.001) and MCS 45.8 ( 10.1) 49.6 ( 8.9) (Mann-Whitney, P 0.001). After adjusting for confounding variables, the respective scores were PCS 48.2 and 49.8 (P 0.05, R 37.9%), and MCS 47.1 and 49.3 ( P 0.01, R 9.7%) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Obesity significantly affects physical and mental health. Recognizing the serious impact on health and HRQoL, and on the raising health care cost as well, formulating effective strategies to prevent obesity should become major public health priorities.
International audienceThis chapter approaches the question of government and surveillance through a comparison between the control practices observable in two types of places. First, we focus on international airports, specifically the French international airport of Orly. Airports are maximum security zones where persons perceived as having no legitimate business are expelled and where suspicious objects are destroyed. The second kind of places are the ones labeled as "no-go areas", violent pockets within urban space. Social housing projects located in the bleak suburbs of French cities are such dangerous zones. Both kinds of places - airports and no-go areas - have very different time and space features: people briefly pass through anonymous airports where relationships are kept at an impersonal minimum, whereas the population of a housing estate area is made of "permanent transients" pinned down by a shared fate of which there seems no escape