obesity and overweight

important facts

• By 2022, one in eight people in the world will be obese.
• Since 1990, global adult obesity has more than doubled, and adolescent obesity has quadrupled.
• By 2022, 2.5 billion adults (18 years and older) will be overweight. Of these, 890 million people live with obesity.
• In 2022, 43% of adults over the age of 18 will be overweight and 16% will be living with obesity.
• By 2022, 37 million children under the age of five will be overweight.
• In 2022, more than 390 million children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 19 were overweight, and 160 million of them were living with obesity.

overview

Overweight is a condition in which excess fat accumulates.

Obesity is a chronic complex disease defined by excess fat accumulation that can compromise health. Obesity affects bone health and reproduction, he can lead to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and also increases the risk of certain cancers. Obesity affects quality of life, including sleep and mobility.

Diagnosis of overweight and obesity is made by measuring a person’s weight and height and calculating body mass index (BMI) (weight (kg)/height 2 (m 2)). BMI is a surrogate marker of obesity, and additional measurements such as waist circumference can help diagnose obesity.

BMI categories for defining obesity vary by age and gender for infants, children, and adolescents.

adult

For adults, the WHO defines overweight and obesity as:

• Overweight is a BMI of 25 or higher.and
• Obesity is defined as a BMI of 30 or higher.

In children, age must be considered when defining overweight and obesity.

Children under 5 years old

For children under 5:

• Overweight is defined as weight-for-height that is more than two standard deviations above the median WHO child growth standards.and
• Obesity is defined as having a weight-for-height value that exceeds the WHO median child growth standard by more than three standard deviations.

Chart: WHO growth standards for children under 5 years old

Children from 5 to 19 years old

Overweight and obesity are defined for children aged 5 to 19 as follows:

• Overweight is defined as having a BMI for age that is more than one standard deviation below the WHO median growth standard.and
• Obesity is more than 2 standard deviations above the WHO median growth standard.

Chart: Reference material on the development of children aged 5-19 years by WHO

Facts about overweight and obesity

By 2022, 2.5 billion adults over the age of 18 will be overweight, and more than 890 million of them will be living with obesity. This equates to 43% of adults over the age of 18 (43% of men and 44% of women) being overweight. This is an increase from 1990, when 25% of adults over 18 were overweight. The prevalence of overweight varied by region, ranging from 31% in the WHO South-East Asia and Africa Region to 67% in the Americas Region.

In 2022, approximately 16% of adults over the age of 18 worldwide were obese. Global obesity prevalence has more than doubled between 1990 and 2022.

In 2022, an estimated 37 million children under the age of five will be overweight. Once considered a problem of high-income countries, overweight is on the rise in low- and middle-income countries. In Africa, the number of overweight children under the age of five has increased by nearly 23% since 2000. Almost half of her children under the age of five who were overweight or living with obesity in 2022 lived in Asia.

In 2022, more than 390 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 were overweight. The prevalence of overweight (including obesity) in children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 years has increased dramatically from just 8% in 1990 to his 20% in 2022. It occurs equally in both boys and girls, with 19% of girls and 21% of boys being overweight in 2022.

In 1990, just 2% of children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 (31 million young people) were obese; by 2022, 8% of children and adolescents (160 million young people) will be obese. I am.

Causes of overweight and obesity

Overweight and obesity result from an imbalance between energy intake (diet) and energy expenditure (physical activity).

In most cases, obesity is a multifactorial disease with environmental, psychosocial factors, and genetic mutations contributing to obesity. In subgroups of patients, a single major etiology is identified (drugs, diseases, immobilization, iatrogenic procedures, monogenic diseases/genetic syndromes).

Obesogenic environments, which exacerbate the likelihood of obesity in individuals, populations, and a variety of settings, are structural factors that limit the availability of affordable, healthy, and sustainable food in the community, and the impact on the daily lives of all people. It is associated with the absence and lack of safe and easy physical movement. Creating an appropriate legal and regulatory environment.

At the same time, the lack of an effective health system response to identify excessive weight gain and fat accumulation at an early stage further exacerbates the progression to obesity.

General health effects

The health risks posed by overweight and obesity are becoming increasingly well-documented and understood.

In 2019, a suboptimal BMI will result in an estimated 5 million deaths from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, neurological diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, and gastrointestinal diseases. caused. (1).

Overweight in childhood and adolescence affects the immediate health of children and adolescents and is associated with increased risk and early onset of various NCDs, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Obesity in childhood and adolescence has negative psychosocial consequences. It affects school performance and quality of life, and is exacerbated by prejudice, discrimination, and bullying. Obese children are much more likely to become obese adults and have a higher risk of developing NCDs as adults.

The economic impact of the obesity epidemic is also important. If nothing is done, the global cost of overweight and obesity is projected to reach US$3 trillion annually by 2030 and more than US$18 trillion by 2060. (2).

Finally, rising obesity rates in low- and middle-income countries, including among groups of lower socio-economic status, are rapidly globalizing a problem that was once relevant only to high-income countries.

facing the double burden of malnutrition

Many low- and middle-income countries face the so-called double burden of malnutrition.

While these countries continue to grapple with infectious diseases and undernutrition, they are also experiencing rapid increases in non-communicable disease risk factors such as obesity and overweight.

Undernutrition and obesity often coexist in the same country, community, and household.

Children in low- and middle-income countries are more susceptible to inadequate prenatal, infant, and early childhood nutrition. At the same time, these children are exposed to foods that are high in fat, sugar, salt, energy density, and poor in micronutrients, and while these foods are lower in cost, they also tend to have lower nutritional quality. . These dietary patterns, combined with decreased levels of physical activity, result in a sharp increase in childhood obesity while the problem of undernutrition remains unresolved.

prevention and control

Overweight and obesity and their associated non-communicable diseases are largely preventable and manageable.

At the individual level, risks may be reduced by employing preventive interventions at each stage of the life cycle, starting before conception and continuing through early childhood. These include:

• Ensure adequate weight gain during pregnancy.
• Exclusive breastfeeding should be practiced until 6 months of age and continued until 24 months of age and beyond.
• Support your child’s behaviors around healthy eating, physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep, regardless of their current weight status.
• Limit screen time.
• Limit intake of sugary drinks and energy-rich foods and promote other healthy eating behaviors.
• Enjoy a healthy life (healthy diet, physical activity, sleep duration and quality, avoidance of tobacco and alcohol, emotional self-regulation).
• Limit your energy intake from total fat and carbohydrates and increase your intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and nuts.and
• Do physical activity regularly.

Healthcare workers should:

• Assess the weight and height of people accessing health care facilities.
• Provides counseling on healthy eating and lifestyle.
• Once a diagnosis of obesity is established, provide integrated obesity prevention and management health services, including healthy diet, physical activity, and medical and surgical measures.and
• Monitor other NCD risk factors (glycemia, lipids, blood pressure) and assess the presence of comorbidities and disorders, including mental health disorders.

Individual people’s dietary and physical activity patterns are primarily the result of environmental and social conditions that greatly limit individual choices. Obesity is a society’s responsibility, not an individual’s, and the solution lies in a supportive environment and a supportive environment that incorporates healthy eating and regular physical activity as the most accessible and affordable activities of daily life. It should be found through community building.

Halting the rise in obesity will require multidisciplinary efforts such as food production, marketing and pricing, as well as other efforts that seek to address broader determinants of health (such as poverty reduction and urban planning) is.

Such policies and actions include:

• Structural, financial, and regulatory measures aimed at creating a healthy food environment that makes healthier food options available, accessible, and desirable.and
• Health sector responses are designed and equipped to identify risks and prevent, treat and manage disease. These actions need to build on and integrate broader efforts to address NCDs through primary health care approaches and strengthen health systems.

The food industry can play an important role in promoting healthy eating by:

• Reduce the fat, sugar, and salt content of processed foods.
• Ensure that healthy, nutritious options are available and affordable to all consumers.
• Restrict the sale of foods high in sugar, salt and fat, especially those targeted to children and adolescents.and
• Ensure healthy food options and support practicing regular physical activity at work.

WHO response

WHO has long recognized the urgent need to address the global obesity crisis.

The World Health Assembly’s Global Nutrition Goals, which aim to ensure the prevention of increases in childhood overweight, and the NCD targets to halt the increase in diabetes and obesity by 2025, have been endorsed by WHO Member States. They recognized the need to accelerate global action to address the pervasive and corrosive problem of the double burden of malnutrition.

at 75 years old^th At the 2022 World Health Assembly, Member States called for and adopted new recommendations for the prevention and control of obesity and endorsed the WHO Accelerated Plan to Stop Obesity. Since its approval, the Acceleration Plan has shaped the political environment to create the necessary impetus for sustainable change, shaping, rationalizing and prioritizing policies, supporting implementation in countries, and supporting implementation at national and global levels. has built a platform to accelerate impact and strengthen accountability.