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The goal of this study was to investigate the prevalence of adiposity in a sample of 35-65 years old individuals from Mashhad in North Eastern Iran, and to ascertain the socioeconomic factors contributing to obesity. The MASHAD study was initiated in 2010 and is a longitudinal cohort study of 9765 individuals aged 35-65 years old. It used a stratified cluster randomized sampling design. Anthropometric measurements [height, weight and waist circumference (WC)] were measured by standard methods. The criteria for under-weight, normal-weight, overweight, and obesity were a BMI of 18.5>, 18.5 to 24.9, 25 to 29.9, 30< (kg/m2), respectively. Abdominal obesity was defined as WC ⩾102 cm in men and WC ⩾88 cm in women and obesity was defined as BMI ⩾30. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the adjusted odds ratio (OR) and chi-square tests were used to determine whether different categories of demographic and lifestyle variables were associated with different degrees of adiposity. The overall prevalence of obesity and overweight were 30.9% and 42.8% respectively. The overall prevalence of central obesity was 46.7%. The prevalence of obesity in women was higher than in men (P < 0.0001). There was an inverse relationship between the risk of obesity and increasing socioeconomic status (P < 0.0001). Adiposity is prevalent in Mashhad, and appears to be particularly common in women. This may be due to the high levels of physical inactivity in the population as a whole and among women in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]