According to a new analysis, over 1 billion adults, adolescents, and children all over the world live with obesity.
Global Obesity Rates Reach 1 Billion
This staggering global obesity rate was achieved much earlier than expected. Earlier estimates made by the World Obesity Federation suggested that the one-billion obesity rate would be met by 2030. However, this rate was already met as early as 2022, as noted by Dr. Majid Ezzati, the analysis' senior author and a professor from the Imperial College London.
The rapid growth rate was largely driven by the fast transition of malnutrition in the form of being underweight to obese across middle-income and low-income countries.
The global analysis was done by over 1,500 researchers from the World Health Organization and the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. The researchers looked into the weight and height measurements of more than 220 million individuals from over 190 countries.
The analysis specifically focused on obesity and underweight rates, as both are malnutrition forms that can pose danger to a person's health. The obesity classification was given to adults if their BMI (body mass index) was at least 30. They were also given the "underweight" classification if their BMI did not exceed 18.5. Adolescents and criteria were categorized based on their sex and age.
According to the analysis, almost 159 million children and 880 million adults lived with obesity in the year 2022. Global obesity rates for adolescents and children grew by four times from 1990 to 2022, while the rates for adults more than doubled.
The analysis also found that obesity rates have now exceeded underweight rates in two-thirds of countries all over the world. Such a transition was most evident in middle-income and low-income nations, most notably in Micronesia and Polynesia, the Caribbean, North America, and the Middle East. These countries were found to have higher obesity rates compared to several wealthy and industrialized nations.
Nauru, American Samoa, and Tonga were found to have the highest obesity prevalence rates in 2022. Over 60% of the population of adults had been living with obesity.
According to Dr. Francesco Branca, the director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety of WHO, explains that, in the past, obesity was thought to be a problem of the rich. Now, obesity has become a world problem.
Dr. Ezzati notes that it was a surprise that no industrialized wealthy nations, except for the US, topped the list of countries with the highest obesity prevalence in 2022. This was a stark difference compared to a similar 2017 global analysis, where US, Australia, Canada, New Zelaand, and the UK topped the obesity prevalence rates.
Dr. Branca explains that the transition results from the fast restructuring of global food systems that public policy has not governed.
Obesity Explained
Obesity is a chronic and complex condition with various causes that result in too much body fat and poor health at times. While body fat itself is not a disease, the body's function can alter if it has excessive extra fat. These changes take place progressively. They may get worse as time passes and lead to adverse health issues.
The condition is typically gauged through BMI (body mass index). There are also three kinds of obesity, namely Class I, Class II, and Class II obesity. The main difference of each type is the BMI.
In basic terms, obesity is primarily caused by the consumption of more calories compared to the expulsion of it. Some factors that can boost calorie consumption are fast food and convenience foods, high-sugar foods, the advertising and marketing of food, psychological factors, hormones, and some medications.
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