It is a global spiral. Without a strong and immediate action of governments, an unprecedented global epidemic of overweight and obesity will affect six out of ten adults and one in three children and adolescents by 2050, which weighs health systems, says a study.
Published on Tuesday, March 4 in The Lancet magazine, this study that includes data from 204 countries and territories around the world, is based on figures for the global disease load, a vast program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aimed at compiling the health data of most countries.
The authors believe that the inaction of governments against the growing crisis of obesity and overweight in the last 30 years has led to an alarming explosion in the number of interested people.
One billion obese people
Between 1990 and 2021, this number almost tripled in adults over 25 years, from 731 million to 2.11 billion, and more than double in children and adolescents from 5 to 24 years old, from 198 to 493 million. Obesity alone affects more than one billion people.
“Without an urgent reform of concrete policies and actions, 60% of adults or 3.8 billion people and almost a third (31%) of children and adolescents, or 746 million, must be overweight or obesity, by 2050” depending on the study.
To deal with “one of the greatest health challenges of the 21st century,” it is necessary to adopt five-year action plans (2025-2030) with emblematic measures: “Regulate the advertising of ultra transformed food, integrate sports infrastructure and games games in schools, foster diets and balanced diets each country,” says its authors.
Obesity is defined in statistical studies through a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30 in adults and overweight by an BMI greater than 25.
Younger obese than overweight in 2030
“In 2050, one in three young people suffering from obesity, 130 million, will live in two regions: North Africa and the Middle East, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean, with serious consequences of health, economic and social,” they say.
Obesity among young people should jump from 121%worldwide, with a total of 360 million obese and adolescents by 2050. The first affected, with a strong expected increase of 2022-2030 on a global scale, are children from 5 to 14 years: in 2030, we should count in this more obese category (16.5%) that above the weight (12.9%).
Risk of illness
Overweight and obesity predispose to the occurrence of other diseases and decrease the quality of life. As indicated by health insurance on their site, people with overweight and obesity “have a greater risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.”
In addition, these people suffer more frequently from metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes or other chronic diseases. Overweight and obesity are also associated with the risk of developing various types of cancer, including the breast, the ovary, the esophagus, the pancreas, the liver, the kidney or the prostate.
To this also add psychological complications. “Therefore, overweight people sometimes have altered self -esteem and suffer from discrimination,” writes health insurance in this regard.
Pressure on health systems
This obesity epidemic will worsen pressure on overloaded health systems, especially in low -income countries, since in 2050, almost a quarter of obese adults in the world should be 65 or more.
“Obesity prevention must be in the foreground of policies in low and intermediate income countries,” said Dr. Jessica Kerr, of the Murdoch Institute for Children in Australia, one of the main co -authors of the study.
Ask “a much stronger political commitment” in favor of “global strategies that improve nutrition, physical activity and people’s life environment,” considering the short action window.
Strong progression in Asia and Africa
Children and overweight adolescents in a large part of Europe and southern Asia must be subject to preventive strategies, while urgent intervention in favor of many adolescents in the process of being obese in North America, Australia, Oceania, North Africa, Middle East and Latin America is necessary.
More than half of adults overweight or obesity live today in just eight countries: China (402 million), India (180 million), United States (172 million), Brazil (88 million), Russia (71 million), Mexico (58 million), Indonesia (52 million) and Egypt (41 million), according to data of 2021.
It is in Asia and Sub -Saharan Africa that the strongest progressions must be registered in the coming decades. In China, overweight and obesity have already increased by around 150% in thirty years and will continue to rise to affect almost two thirds of the population in 2050. In Nigeria, the number of adults with overweight or obesity should be tripled by 2050, which would make it the fourth most affected country in an absolute number.
In certain states of Oceania, Middle East or North Africa, prevalence already reaches the peaks: overweight and obesity affect more than 87% of men in Nouru or Kuwait and 88% of women.
Source: BFM TV
