The figures are very worrying. Obesity affects nearly 16% of the world’s population, or more than 1 billion people. In 2022, 859 million adults were affected and 179 million children. This is the result of a study published this Friday, March 1, in the prestigious scientific journal The Lancet.
The research was carried out by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC), a group of scientists, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). Presented as one of the most comprehensive studies carried out to date on the subject, it is based on data concerning 220 million people aged five and over (63 million people aged five to 19 and 158 million people aged 20 and over), in more than 190 countries.
In total, more than 1,500 researchers contributed to the study, which looked at body mass index (BMI) to understand how obesity and underweight changed globally between 1990 and 2022.
Four times more than in 1990
According to the WHO definition, a person is overweight when their body mass index (BMI) is greater than 25 and obese when it is greater than 30. Between 1990 and 2022, in children and adolescents, global obesity rates more than quadrupled among girls (1.7% to 6.9%) and boys (2.1% to 9.3%), with increases seen in almost every country . Conversely, the rate of underweight children is slowly decreasing. The proportion of underweight girls increased from 10.3% in 1990 to 8.2% in 2022, and for boys, from 16.7% to 10.8%.
Among adults, obesity rates more than doubled among women (from 8.8% to 18.5%) and nearly tripled among men (from 4.8% to 14%) during the same period. . The proportion of underweight adults halved between 1990 and 2022 (14.5% to 7% among women; 13.7% to 6.2% among men). In total, 504 million women and 374 million men worldwide live with obesity, the study highlights.
More obesity than underweight
The document further notes a transition between the rate of obesity and that of underweight. In most countries, by 2022, obesity rates were higher than underweight rates in both adults and children.
“This new study highlights the importance of preventing and managing obesity from early life through adulthood, through diet, physical activity and adequate care, as needed,” said said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “To get back on track and achieve global goals to combat obesity, governments will need to do real work on the subject… It is important to emphasize that we need the collaboration of the private sector, which must be responsible for the impact of its products on health.”
Polynesia, where more than 60% of adults are obese, as well as certain countries in North Africa and the Middle East now have a higher rate of obesity than that of underweight. The United States is still among the most affected countries. The number of people suffering from obesity has doubled in thirty years, from 21% to 43% among women, and from 16% to 41% among men. The United Kingdom is also severely affected, with 28% of women and 26% of men affected, compared to half as many in 1990. In emerging countries, such as India and China, The Lancet also notes an increase in the number of overweight people, increasing from 1.2% to 9.8% and from 2% to 7.8% respectively.
According to the WHO, the problem of obesity has reached epidemic proportions for several years. In 2017, more than 4 million people died each year from overweight or obesity, according to a study on the global burden of morbidity and mortality linked to this pathology.