Dramatic Increase in Obesity Rates Globally, Study

Over the last 33 years, there has been a dramatic rise in obesity rates not just in adults but also children, a new study reveals.

Based on the analysis of the 2013 Global Burden of Disease Study, a latest finding reveals that there has been a 28 percent rise in obesity levels among adults and a 47 percent increase in children. The number rose from 857 million obese people in 1980 to 2.1 billion in 2013.

This increase in obesity rates in not uniform throughout the world as nearly 671 million obese people reside in only ten countries. Among the ten countries, the United States leads with over 13 percent obesity rate, followed by China and India with 15 percent totally. Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Germany, Pakistan and Indonesia come next.

According to Professor Gakidou, "Unlike other major global health risks, such as tobacco and childhood nutrition, obesity is not decreasing worldwide. Our findings show that increases in the prevalence of obesity have been substantial, widespread, and have arisen over a short time....."

The rate of obesity has been high among women over the last three decades. And this is increasingly seen in Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Honduras and Bahrain. Whereas obese men are more in New Zealand, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the U.S.

Nearly a third of the obese adult population resides in high income countries like the United States followed by Australia that has 28 percent obese men and 30 percent obese women.  A quarter of the obese adult population is present in the United Kingdom.

The study highlights the drastic increase in obesity rate and suggests the need for certain efficient measures that will help reverse this growing trend.

In this study, Professor Emmanuela Gakidou from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, USA, conducted a comprehensive search of the data retrieved from surveys and also the scientific literature to identify trends in the occurrence of obesity in 188 countries in 21 regions of the world from 1980-2012.

Higher rates of obesity were seen in men in the developed world while in developing countries, women had higher obesity rates.  And nearly 62 percent of the world population lives in developing countries.

The massive increase in weight and obesity worldwide occurred between 1992 and 2002 especially among 20-40 years old.

It is in the developed countries that the rate of obese individuals soared from 17 percent in 1980 to 24 percent in 2013 in boys and 16 percent to 23 percent in girls.  Over the last 8 years the rate of obesity among adults has declined in developed countries.

"Our analysis suggests that the UN's target to stop the rise in obesity by 2025 is very ambitious and is unlikely to be achieved without concerted action and further research to assess the effect of population-wide interventions and how to effectively translate that knowledge into national obesity control programmes," said Professor Gakidou.

The finding appears in The Lancet.