The observation is clear: failure is global in our response to the growing crisis of obesity. Without a strong and immediate action of governments, an unprecedented global epidemic of overweight and obesity will affect six out of ten adults and one in three children and adolescents by 2050, weighing health systems, says a study. Published Tuesday, March 4 in the scientific journal The Lancetthis study which brings together data from 204 countries and territories in the world is based on the figures of Global Burden of Diseasea vast program funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the objective of which is to compile the health data of most countries.
Between 1990 and 2021, the number of obese or overweight people almost tripled in adults over 25 years of age, going from 731 million to 2.11 billion, and more than doubled in children and adolescents from 5 to 24 years old, from 198 to 493 million. “Without urgent reform of concrete policies and shares, 60 % of adults or 3.8 billion people and almost a third (31 %) of children and adolescents, or 746 million, should be overweight or obese by 2050” reports the study. However, this will represent “an unprecedented threat” of premature death, illness and enormous pressure on health systems, warns a report.
Once this observation has been drawn up, scientists offer some tracks to face “one of the greatest health challenges of the 21st century”. And some examples of flagship measures which can act as action plans over five years (2025-2030), such as “regulate the advertising of ultra-transformed food, integrate sports infrastructure and playgrounds in schools”, but also “encourage breastfeeding and balanced diets from pregnancy” or even “develop nutrition policies adapted to each country”.
According to an article published in The Conversation,, Our environments would become more and more “obesogenic”, that is to say conducive to obesity: “It becomes very difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle because we live surrounded by foods rich in calories very practical, affordable and addictive.”
360 million children and obese adolescents by 2050
“In 2050, one in three young people suffering from obesity or 130 million, will live in two regions: North Africa and the Middle East, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean, with serious health, economic and social consequences”, notes the study of the study Lancet.
Obesity among young people should jump from 121 %worldwide, with a total of 360 million obese children and adolescents by 2050. The first affected, with a strong increase expected from 2022-2030 on a global scale, are boys aged 5 to 14: in 2030, we should count in this category more obese (16.5 %) than overweight (12.9 %).
This obesity epidemic will worsen pressure on already overloaded health systems, especially in low -resources countries, since in 2050, almost a quarter of obese adults in the world should be 65 or more. “Obesity prevention must be in the foreground of policies in low and intermediate income countries,” said Dr Jessica Kerr of the Murdoch Institute for Children in Australia, one of the main co -authors of the study. For his part, Professor Emmanuela Gakidou, of the University of Washington, deplores in The Guardian :: “The unprecedented global epidemic of overweight and obesity is a deep tragedy and a monumental societal failure.”
Overweight children and adolescents in a large part of Europe and South Asia must be the subject of preventive strategies, while an urgent intervention is necessary in favor of many adolescent girls in the process of becoming obese in North America, Australia, Oceania, North Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. More than half of overweight or obese adults live today in only eight countries: China (402 million), India (180 million), the United States (172 million), Brazil (88 million), Russia (71 million), Mexico (58 million), Indonesia (52 million) and Egypt (41 million), according to 2021 data.