Obesity: a third of the population suffers from overweight

The obese were 857 million in 1980. But the number of overweight or obese inhabitants of the planet reached 2.1 billion in 2013 (including 671 million obese) according to the results of this large-scale study which covered 188 countries in the world. Produced by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it is now published in the medical journal The Lancet.

Alarming figures
Half of the 671 million obese live in 10 countries: the United States, China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Germany, Pakistan and Indonesia. But sharp increases in obesity levels are observed in North Africa (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain) for women and men, as well as in the United States, for men.
In the United States and Australia, 30% of adults are obese and this disease increasingly affects children. The study reveals that “the prevalence of overweight and obesity in childhood increases dramatically in developed countries, from 17% in 1980 to 24% in 2013 among boys and from 16% to 23% among girls. This increase is somewhat lower in developing countries: from 8% to 13% among boys and girls over the past 33 years ”.
The only positive finding from this survey is that in developed countries, “the rate of increase in adult obesity has started to slow down since 2006”.
Obesity has become a real public health problem. In 2010, global health organizations estimated overweight and obesity to be the cause of 3.4 million death, and a decrease in life expectancy.
Due to the risks to health and its development in the world, obesity has become a major global health issue.
“The United Nations target of halting the rise in obesity by 2025 is very ambitious and unlikely to be achieved without concerted action. ”
“But there is a need for urgent global action and to help developing countries eradicate this phenomenon. An appropriate rebalancing of human primary needs with food availability is essential. Calorie intake and physical inactivity must be reduced, ”concludes Professor Klim McPherson of the University of Oxford.

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