Big, Bigger, Biggest News: Obesity Rate Doubles

Reported February 11, 2011

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Obesity has nearly doubled since 1980, according to a major study on how three important heart disease risk factors have changed across the world over the last three decades.

The study shows that in 2008, more than one in ten of the world's adult population was obese, with women more likely to be obese than men. An estimated 205 million men and 297 million adult women were obese - a total of more than half a billion adults worldwide.

The proportion of the world's population with high blood pressure, or uncontrolled hypertension, fell modestly between 1980 and 2008. However, because of population growth and ageing, the number of people with uncontrolled hypertension rose from 600 million in 1980 to nearly 1 billion in 2008. High-income countries achieved large reductions in uncontrolled hypertension, with the most impressive progress seen in women in Australasia and men in North America.

Uncontrolled hypertension is defined as a systolic blood pressure higher than 140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure higher than 90 mmHg. Average levels of total blood cholesterol fell in Western countries of North America, Australasia and Europe, but increased in East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific region.

"Our results show that overweight and obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are no longer Western problems or problems of wealthy nations. Their presence has shifted towards low and middle income countries, making them global problems," Professor Majid Ezzati, the senior author of the study from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London was quoted as saying.

The review was carried out by an international collaboration of researchers, led by Professor Majid Ezzati from Imperial College London and co-led by Dr. Goodarz Danaei from the Harvard School of Public Health, in collaboration with The World Health Organization and a number of other institutions.

"Our study helps track the obesity problem in individual countries and regions. We know that changes in diet and in physical activity have contributed to the worldwide rise in obesity, but it remains unclear which policies would effectively reduce obesity. We need to identify, implement, and rigorously evaluate policy interventions aimed at reversing the trends, or limiting their harmful effects,” Dr. Gretchen Stevens, from the World Health Organization, was quoted as saying.

 Lancet, February 2011