According to a study published in The Lancet, obesity now affects more than a billion people worldwide.
- More than a billion people worldwide are affected by obesity, according to a new study.
- This threshold should have been crossed around 2030 according to previous estimates.
- Faced with this acceleration of the obesity epidemic, the WHO is calling for measures to be taken to combat unbalanced diets.
Cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases… obesity is a risk factor for many diseases. This is why the sharp increase in cases of obesity worldwide observed by the study carried out in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and published in the British medical journal The Lancet is very worrying.
Obesity epidemic: the number of cases has exploded in thirty years
For their study, the researchers took data from around 220 million people in more than 190 countries and found that more than a billion people worldwide, including children and adolescents, suffer from obesity. Professor Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London (United Kingdom), one of the main authors of the research, clarified that previous estimates expected this threshold to be crossed around 2030.
In detail, analyzes show that the obesity rate has increased 4.5 times among adults in thirty years. In fact, there are almost 880 million adults living with obesity in 2022 in the world compared to 195 million in 1990. In addition, the number of cases of obesity among men has almost tripled (from 4.8 % in 1990 to 14% in 2022) while it has more than doubled among women (from 8.8% to 18.5%).
This “epidemic” also hits children and adolescents hard. The number of cases of obesity among young people has increased from 31 million in 1990 to 160 million in 2022. It has increased fivefold in 30 years.
Obesity: more and more low-income countries affected
Another observation from the study: if obesity was mainly a disease observed in the West before, it is now increasingly present in low- and middle-income countries. For example, the countries of Polynesia and Micronesia, the Middle East, North Africa and the Caribbean have higher obesity rates than in Europe. “In the past we tended to view obesity as a problem of rich countries, now it is a global problem”, explains Francesco Branca to AFP. For him, there is the effect of a “rapid transformation, and not for the better, of food systems in low- and middle-income countries”.
In addition, being underweight – which can also be the cause of many health problems such as increased mortality during childbirth or infectious diseases – also remains a problem, especially in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The researchers note that certain territories must therefore face the “double burden” undernutrition and obesity.
“This new study highlights the importance of preventing and managing obesity from early in life and into adulthood, through diet, physical activity and healthy care appropriate to needs”, says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO. He calls for “the cooperation of the private sector, which must be responsible for the impact of its products on health”.
For its organization, more measures should be deployed against junk food such as the taxation of sugary drinks, the subsidizing of foods good for health, the promotion of physical activity or even the regulation of advertisements for very fatty or sugary foods.
Regarding anti-diabetes drugs used for weight loss, Francesco Bianca, director of the “Nutrition for health and development” department of the WHO, believes they are “an important tool, but not a solution” to obesity. “It is important to look at the long-term or side effects of these medications.”
