Study: number of people with severe obesity has risen rapidly
Published: Friday, Mar 1st 2024, 04:50
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The number of people who are severely overweight - known as obesity - has risen rapidly. According to a study, more than one billion people worldwide were affected in 2022.
The proportion of severely overweight people in the population has more than doubled since 1990 and has even quadrupled among adolescents between the ages of 5 and 19, reported the specialist journal "The Lancet". The World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva was involved in the study.
In some affluent countries and certain population and age groups, the number has now reached a plateau or is falling slightly, said Majid Ezzati from Imperial College in London, for example among women in Spain and France. Finding out the exact reasons for this was not part of the analysis.
Chronic illness
Obesity can cause cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some forms of cancer. "Obesity is a chronic disease that is defined as an increase in body fat that exceeds normal levels," writes the German Obesity Society. Whether someone is affected is calculated according to weight and height, the body mass index (BMI). From a BMI of 30, the society speaks of "obesity grade I".
In 2022, a total of 880 million adults and 159 million children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 19 were severely overweight. 9.3 percent of boys were considered obese in 2022, 6.9 percent of girls. Among adults, the proportion of women has doubled since 1990 to 18.5 percent and tripled among men to 14 percent.
The highest overall obesity rates were found in Pacific island states such as Niue, Tonga and American Samoa, with over 60 percent in some cases. Qatar, Egypt, Chile and the USA were also in the top ten in individual categories. The lowest rates were recorded in Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Vietnam and Ethiopia. The increase was rapid in the USA, among other countries: the proportion of women with obesity rose from 21.2 percent in 1990 to 43.8 percent in 2022, while the proportion of men rose from 16.9 percent to 41.6 percent.
Malnutrition and obesity
Obesity can be prevented from an early age through good nutrition and exercise, the WHO reported. Governments should ensure that foods and drinks containing salt, fat or sugar in particular are not sold near schools and that advertising aimed at children is restricted. They should also run campaigns on the benefits of good nutrition and physical activity. The WHO acknowledged that good nutrition can be expensive.
The other side of the nutrition problem: at the same time, hundreds of millions of people around the world continue to be affected by malnutrition and undernourishment, the study states, particularly in countries in South-East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Malnutrition is responsible for half of all deaths in children under the age of five. According to the WHO, severe obesity and malnutrition are two sides of the same problem: poor nutrition.
©Keystone/SDA
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