The global obesity epidemic continues to grow at a dizzying rate. In just over thirty years, global obesity rates have more than doubled among adults and quadrupled among children and adolescents. More than a billion people are obese today, or one in eight. This is the main finding of a large study published by The lancet, Friday 1stum March, three days before World Obesity Day, a pathology that is accompanied by numerous complications (type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, etc.) and is the fifth cause of death in the world, along with obesity. According to the British journal, 879 million adults and 159 million children and adolescents were obese in 2022; In 1990 there were 195 million and 31 million respectively.
Women represent the majority of affected adults (504 million or 57%), but the trend has progressed most rapidly in men in thirty years: in them the prevalence has almost tripled, while in women it has doubled. Among children, obesity primarily affects boys (94 million or 59%), although the increase in prevalence is comparable between the sexes – a factor of 4 in girls and 4.4 in boys.
Authors from the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration – an international network researching noncommunicable diseases – estimated trends in obesity and underweight based on more than 3,600 studies in 197 countries. In accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO), they define obesity in adults as a body mass index (BMI, weight divided by height squared) of more than 30. They recognize that BMI is not an ideal indicator because it is not taken into account take into account the proportion and distribution of fat in the body, but emphasize that it is widespread, allowing comparisons between countries.
Underweight is characterized by a BMI of less than 18.5. If it is one of the manifestations of malnutrition, although it is not the most commonly used indicator to measure food insecurity, using the same databases it makes it possible to illustrate the double burden of malnutrition.
“A global problem”
“We expected to reach one billion [de personnes obèses] in 2030, but it arrived much faster,” said Francesco Branca, the director of the WHO’s Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, on Thursday, February 29, during a press conference to present these data. “Different forms of malnutrition exist within countries, communities or families, and a child who initially suffers from underweight may then be affected by obesity.” he clarified, generally emphasizing a “Lack of access to healthy food”.
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