New epidemic to report in Europe. According to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) published on Tuesday, May 3, overweight and obesity are the cause of at least 1.3 million deaths per year worldwide. Europe and the Americas are the regions most affected by a phenomenon that is now reaching “epidemic proportions” deplores in a statement the European branch of the WHO.
- Nearly “a quarter of adults” are obese
The Mediterranean and Eastern European countries are particularly affected by this scourge. The report also points out that the prevalence of obesity, that is to say the number of people affected by this disease at a given moment in a given population, is higher “among people with a low level of education “. These rates, however, tend to be higher in high-income countries, especially among men who have higher prevalence levels than women (63% versus 54%). Today, in Europe, almost “a quarter of adults are now obese”.
The extent of the phenomenon was particularly revealed during the Covid-19 pandemic, patients suffering from obesity being more likely to experience complications and succumb to the virus. The pandemic is thus the cause of harmful changes in eating and sports habits (sedentary lifestyle, consumption of foods harmful to health) whose lasting effects must be reversed, pleads the WHO.
- At the origin of 13 different types of cancer
- At the origin of 13 different types of cancer
“Increased body mass index is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases, including cancers and cardiovascular diseases,” said WHO Europe director Hans Kluge, quoted in the report, adding that this scourge “knows no borders”.
Obesity is in fact the cause of at least 13 different types of cancer and is likely to be directly responsible for at least 200,000 new cases of cancer per year, according to the WHO. A figure which “is expected to increase further in the years to come”, explains the organization which predicts that in the decades to come obesity will overtake smoking as the main risk factor for avoidable cancer in certain European countries.
- One in three children is overweight
The latest comprehensive data available, dating back to 2016, shows that 59% of adults and almost one in three children (29% of boys and 27% of girls) are overweight in Europe. Since 1975, when barely 40% of European adults were overweight, the prevalence of obesity in adults has soared by 138%, with an increase of 21% between 2006 and 2016.
The organization believes that “policy interventions that target the environmental and market determinants of unhealthy diets (…) are likely to be most effective in reversing the epidemic”. There is also a need to tax sugary drinks, subsidize healthy foods, limit the marketing of unhealthy foods to children and support efforts to encourage physical activity throughout life.