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Key facts

Worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975.
In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults, 18 years and older, were overweight. Of these over 650 million were obese.
39% of adults aged 18 years and over were overweight in 2016, and 13% were obese.
Most of the world’s population live in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight.
41 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in 2016.
Over 340 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 were overweight or obese in 2016.
Obesity is preventable.

What are obesity and overweight

Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health.

Body mass index (BMI) is a simple index of weight-for-height that is commonly used to classify overweight and obesity in adults. It is defined as a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of his height in meters (kg/m²).

Adults

For adults, WHO defines overweight and obesity as follows:

overweight is a BMI greater than or equal to 25; and
obesity is a BMI greater than or equal to 30.

BMI provides the most useful population-level measure of overweight and obesity as it is the same for both sexes and for all ages of adults. However, it should be considered a rough guide because it may not correspond to the same degree of fatness in different individuals.

For children, age needs to be considered when defining overweight and obesity.

Children under 5 years of age

For children under 5 years of age:

overweight is weight-for-height greater than 2 standard deviations above WHO Child Growth Standards median; and
obesity is weight-for-height greater than 3 standard deviations above the WHO Child Growth Standards median.
Charts and tables: WHO child growth standards for children aged under 5 years

Children aged between 5–19 years

Overweight and obesity are defined as follows for children aged between 5–19 years:

overweight is BMI-for-age greater than 1 standard deviation above the WHO Growth Reference median; and
obesity is greater than 2 standard deviations above the WHO Growth Reference median.
Charts and tables: WHO growth reference for children aged between 5–19 years

Facts about overweight and obesity

Some recent WHO global estimates follow.

In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults aged 18 years and older were overweight. Of these over 650 million adults were obese.
In 2016, 39% of adults aged 18 years and over (39% of men and 40% of women) were overweight.
Overall, about 13% of the world’s adult population (11% of men and 15% of women) were obese in 2016.
The worldwide prevalence of obesity nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016.

In 2016, an estimated 41 million children under the age of 5 years were overweight or obese. Once considered a high-income country problem, overweight and obesity are now on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings. In Africa, the number of overweight children under 5 has increased by nearly 50 per cent since 2000. Nearly half of the children under 5 who were overweight or obese in 2016 lived in Asia.

Over 340 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 were overweight or obese in 2016.

The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents aged 5-19 has risen dramatically from just 4% in 1975 to just over 18% in 2016. The rise has occurred similarly among both boys and girls: in 2016 18% of girls and 19% of boys were overweight.

While just under 1% of children and adolescents aged 5-19 were obese in 1975, more 124 million children and adolescents (6% of girls and 8% of boys) were obese in 2016.

Overweight and obesity are linked to more deaths worldwide than underweight. Globally there are more people who are obese than underweight – this occurs in every region except parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

What causes obesity and overweight?

The fundamental cause of obesity and overweight is an energy imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended. Globally, there has been:

an increased intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat; and
an increase in physical inactivity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of transportation, and increasing urbanization.

Changes in dietary and physical activity patterns are often the result of environmental and societal changes associated with development and lack of supportive policies in sectors such as health, agriculture, transport, urban planning, environment, food processing, distribution, marketing, and education.

What are common health consequences of overweight and obesity?

Raised BMI is a major risk factor for noncommunicable diseases such as:

cardiovascular diseases (mainly heart disease and stroke), which were the leading cause of death in 2012;
diabetes;
musculoskeletal disorders (especially osteoarthritis – a highly disabling degenerative disease of the joints);
some cancers (including endometrial, breast, ovarian, prostate, liver, gallbladder, kidney, and colon).

The risk for these noncommunicable diseases increases, with increases in BMI.

Childhood obesity is associated with a higher chance of obesity, premature death and disability in adulthood. But in addition to increased future risks, obese children experience breathing difficulties, increased risk of fractures, hypertension, early markers of cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and psychological effects.

Facing a double burden of disease

Many low- and middle-income countries are now facing a “double burden” of disease.

While these countries continue to deal with the problems of infectious diseases and undernutrition, they are also experiencing a rapid upsurge in noncommunicable disease risk factors such as obesity and overweight, particularly in urban settings.
It is not uncommon to find undernutrition and obesity co-existing within the same country, the same community and the same household.

Children in low- and middle-income countries are more vulnerable to inadequate pre-natal, infant, and young child nutrition. At the same time, these children are exposed to high-fat, high-sugar, high-salt, energy-dense, and micronutrient-poor foods, which tend to be lower in cost but also lower in nutrient quality. These dietary patterns, in conjunction with lower levels of physical activity, result in sharp increases in childhood obesity while undernutrition issues remain unsolved.

link – https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight

written by World health organization

Historical attitudes

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance obesity was often seen as a sign of wealth, and was relatively common among the elite: The Tuscan General Alessandro del Borro, attributed to Charles Mellin, 1645^[199]

Venus of Willendorf created 24,000–22,000 BC

Ancient Greek medicine recognizes obesity as a medical disorder, and records that the Ancient Egyptians saw it in the same way.^[190] Hippocrates wrote that “Corpulence is not only a disease itself, but the harbinger of others”.^[2] The Indian surgeon Sushruta (6th century BCE) related obesity to diabetes and heart disorders.^[200] He recommended physical work to help cure it and its side effects.^[200] For most of human history mankind struggled with food scarcity.^[201] Obesity has thus historically been viewed as a sign of wealth and prosperity. It was common among high officials in Europe in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance as well as in Ancient East Asian civilizations.^[202] In the 17th century, English medical author Tobias Venner is credited with being one of the first to refer to the term as a societal disease in a published English language book.^[190]^[203]

With the onset of the Industrial Revolution it was realized that the military and economic might of nations were dependent on both the body size and strength of their soldiers and workers.^[94] Increasing the average body mass index from what is now considered underweight to what is now the normal range played a significant role in the development of industrialized societies.^[94] Height and weight thus both increased through the 19th century in the developed world. During the 20th century, as populations reached their genetic potential for height, weight began increasing much more than height, resulting in obesity.^[94] In the 1950s increasing wealth in the developed world decreased child mortality, but as body weight increased heart and kidney disease became more common.^[94]^[204]During this time period, insurance companies realized the connection between weight and life expectancy and increased premiums for the obese.^[2]

Many cultures throughout history have viewed obesity as the result of a character flaw. The obesus or fat character in Ancient Greek comedy was a glutton and figure of mockery. During Christian times the food was viewed as a gateway to the sins of sloth and lust.^[15]In modern Western culture, excess weight is often regarded as unattractive, and obesity is commonly associated with various negative stereotypes. People of all ages can face social stigmatization, and may be targeted by bullies or shunned by their peers.^[205]

Public perceptions in Western society regarding healthy body weight differ from those regarding the weight that is considered ideal – and both have changed since the beginning of the 20th century. The weight that is viewed as an ideal has become lower since the 1920s. This is illustrated by the fact that the average height of Miss America pageant winners increased by 2% from 1922 to 1999, while their average weight decreased by 12%.^[206] On the other hand, people’s views concerning healthy weight have changed in the opposite direction. In Britain, the weight at which people considered themselves to be overweight was significantly higher in 2007 than in 1999.^[207] These changes are believed to be due to increasing rates of adiposity leading to increased acceptance of extra body fat as being normal.^[207]

Obesity is still seen as a sign of wealth and well-being in many parts of Africa. This has become particularly common since the HIVepidemic began.^[2]

lin- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity

written by wikipedia