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MORE THAN ONE in 10 people worldwide are now obese and 2.2 billion are believed to be overweight, according to a major new international study.
Obesity numbers have more than doubled in 73 countries and surged elsewhere around the world since the launch in 1980 of the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Conducted in 195 countries over a 35-year period, the research presented at a conference in Stockholm today is billed as the most comprehensive carried out to date on the subject of obesity.
At the conclusion of the study in 2015, 107.7 million children and 603.7 million adults worldwide were deemed to be obese, triggering what its authors described as “a growing and disturbing global public health crisis”.
Even though the obesity rate in children remained lower than among adults, it had grown at a faster rate during the study period – a finding experts described as especially “worrisome”.
“Excess body weight is one of the most challenging public health problems of our time, affecting nearly one in every three people,” said Dr Ashkan Afshin, the paper’s lead author and an assistant professor of global health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle.
“Over the past decade, numerous interventions have been evaluated, but very little evidence exists about their long-term effectiveness,” he added, announcing a new 10-year partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization to evaluate global progress in controlling excess weight.
A total of 2.2 billion people – 30% of the world population – were believed to be either obese or overweight by 2015.
The World Health Organization had estimated the number of overweight people at 1.9 billion in 2014, including more than 600 million who were obese.
Excess weight is linked to sharply increased rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some types of cancer.
Four million deaths in 2015 were linked to having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of over 24.5, indicating a person is overweight, or of 30 or more, indicating obesity. BMI is calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by their height in centimetres squared.
Of those deaths, more than 40% involved people deemed non-obese – indicating that being overweight, even without being obese, is leading to millions of premature deaths.
More than two-thirds of deaths linked to a raised BMI were attributed to cardiovascular diseases, marking a sharp increase since 1990.
‘Global epidemic’
Of the world’s most populous countries, the rate of obesity among children and young adults was highest in the United States, at 13%, while Egypt had the highest rate of obesity among adults, at 35% of the population.
The lowest rates of adult obesity were in Bangladesh and Vietnam, both at 1%.
China and India had the highest number of obese children – respectively 15.3 and 14.4 million.
The United States and China, meanwhile, had the greatest number of obese adults – respectively 79.4 and 57.3 million.
In an editorial accompanying the study, Dr Edward Gregg and Dr. Jonathan Shaw, both epidemiologists at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the most worrisome finding was the approximate tripling of obesity in youth and young adults of middle-income countries – namely China, Brazil, and Indonesia.
“An early onset of obesity is likely to translate into a high cumulative incidence of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease,” they warned.
The study was based on the latest data provided by the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, which tracks the impact of more than 300 types of pathology and injury in 133 countries.
Its chief goal was to understand, on a global scale, what is driving “the current global epidemic of disease” related to high body weight, the authors said.
The research was unveiled today at the annual EAT Stockholm Food Forum, which brings together scientists, business leaders and politicians to address ways to transform the global food system to help solve the challenges of climate, sustainable development and health.
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Govt. for last three months ” Its going to be an outdoors summer, outdoors is so much safer, get ready for outdoors living”
Last weekend people went outdoors.
Govt. ” Oh Christ, they’ve gone outdoors, who would have seen that coming”
@Dermot: refusing to provide bins and toilets to the public is institutional arrogance of the highest order. The Taoiseach must ensure reform so that we get value for our local taxes.
Come on councils! Be positive – remember it’s a bag of cans, not a bag of can’ts!
@David Riordan: hahahaha. Love it!
@David Riordan: Yes We Cans!
Big Phil Hogan done the damage back in the OOs by giving all the power to the city manager and he is an unelected power and calls all the shots even if he is out of tune with reality co councillors are merely a well p aid talking shop emo shoul d know that or was he asleep then as well
The sensible thing would have been to confirm with Met Eireann and see that June was bringing in a hugely positive change in the weather and thus people would want to get out in it after 7 months of being cooped up….and to just bring in the outdoor dining/drinking from last weekend so that people could enjoy the weather and refreshments in a far better environment that had facilities on site also. Probably made just too much sense to do that I guess
I can’t believe it, this is the first time Eamon Ryan and myself are in agreement, must be a blue moon
@Honeybee: Yeah I was just thinking the same! He’s saying all the right things for a change.
@Honeybee: mostly because Ryan is a politician that wasn’t going to say anything else in rwsponce to the overwhelming view by most people that Tony h tweet of being shocked was the most out of touch reading of the mood of the people – as many have said they hammered the message for outdoors and then shut the parks and toilets at 8pm on a sunny Saturday evening and had garda move everyone out – while asking for no house parties and not opening outdoor pubs – what could possibly go wrong
Happening for months.
Every one knows
Tony get off your soap box
It didn’t matter yesterday how many people flooded the streets literally and metaphorically speaking but as soon as there’s negative publicity and the proverbial manure hits the fan things magically begin to change! Classic policy making in DCC…
So the OPW who wasted millions of the taxpayers money by their inability to do their job properly haven’t enough money for a few loos and bins?
In Kilkenny two separate areas have been fitted with picnic benches at a safe distance from each other and it is really lovely to see everyone having a coffee or a bite to eat. And massive bins for the rubbish, which everybody appears to use. Things may be different when the pubs open of course!
Surprised to hear Ms Martin is in Govt, she never says anything. What has culture to do with saving the planet?? And Mr Ryan promising to give money with no accountability attached to unelected county managers. Nice of him. What ever happened to the save the planet climate change policies that they were elected on. The real issues!! e.g. Google databases and their electrical supply. Carbon emissions, Methane, meeting targets set by EU and Paris etc etc. They are obviously a bit green behind the ears and are obviously heading for extinction. And that really hurts!!
But.. but… What about all the yobbos dumping their stuff like the dcc said they would??
Come on councils! Be positive – remember it’s a bag of cans, not a bag of cants!
have your say