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The total number of children, adolescents and adults worldwide living with obesity has exceeded one billion, according to a global analysis published in the journal The Lancet.
These trends, along with the declining prevalence of underweight people since 1990, make obesity the most common form of malnutrition in most countries, the researchers said.
Analysis of global data by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that among the world’s children and adolescents, the obesity rate in 2022 was four times higher than that of 1990.
Among adults, the obesity rate doubled in women and nearly tripled in men. In total, 159 million children and adolescents and 879 million adults were living with obesity in 2022, according to the study.
Between 1990 and 2022, the proportion of the world’s children and adolescents affected by underweight fell by around a fifth for girls and more than a third for boys. The proportion of the world’s adults affected by underweight fell by more than half during the same period.
Obesity and underweight are forms of malnutrition and are harmful to people’s health in many ways. The latest study provides a very detailed picture of global trends in both forms of malnutrition over the past 33 years.
“It is very worrying that the obesity epidemic that was evident among adults in much of the world in 1990 is now reflected in school-age children and adolescents,” said lead author Professor Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London. in the United Kingdom.
“At the same time, hundreds of millions remain affected by malnutrition, particularly in some of the poorest parts of the world. To successfully address both forms of malnutrition it is vital that we significantly improve the availability and affordability of healthy and nutritious foods,” Ezzati said.
Researchers analyzed height and weight measurements of more than 220 million people ages five and older (63 million people ages five to 19 and 158 million people ages 20 and older), representing more than 190 countries.
More than 1,500 researchers contributed to the study, which looked at body mass index (BMI) to understand how obesity and underweight have changed around the world between 1990 and 2022.
From 1990 to 2022, global obesity rates quadrupled in girls and boys, with increases seen in almost all countries, the study found.
The proportion of underweight girls fell from 10.3 percent in 1990 to 8.2 percent in 2022, and for boys, it fell from 16.7 percent to 10.8 percent, the researchers said. .
Among girls, a decline in underweight rates was detected in 44 countries, while among boys a decline was seen in 80 countries, they said.
The total number of children and adolescents affected by obesity in 2022 was almost 160 million (65 million girls and 94 million boys), compared to 31 million in 1990. While 77 million girls and 108 million boys had underweight in 2022, declining from 81 million for girls and 138 million for boys in 1990.
In adults, obesity rates more than doubled among women and nearly tripled in men between 1990 and 2022. The proportion of underweight adults fell by half between 1990 and 2022.
In total, it is estimated that almost 880 million adults were living with obesity in 2022 (504 million women and 374 million men), four and a half times the 195 million registered in 1990 (128 million women and 67 million men), the researchers said.
Across all age groups, the combined burden of both forms of undernutrition increased in most countries between 1990 and 2022, driven by rising obesity rates.
However, the double burden of undernutrition decreased in many countries in South and Southeast Asia, and in some African countries for men, where the rate of underweight decreased dramatically.
(Edited by: Vivek Dubey)