More than 2 billion people around the world suffer from a disorder that, in one way or another, is related to being overweight or obese . That is the main conclusion of a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine , in which a team of experts from different institutions warn that extra kilos increase the chances of developing cardiovascular disease, diabetes or cancer, among other ailments . Moreover, of the 40 million deaths that scientists attribute to this phenomenon , about 40% affected people who were overweight or obese but who had not yet been diagnosed as such . This, they indicate, is a sign of the worrying and growing global public health crisis that it represents.
The work, which has been promoted by the Institute for Health Measurement and Evaluation, at the University of Washington, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, evaluates very different data taken in 195 countries between 1980 and 2015 From these, it has been determined, for example, that, among the most populated states, the one with the most obese adults in proportion to its population is Egypt – 35%. In the United States, on the other hand, the largest number of children and adolescents live with obesity or overweight – almost 13% -. 80 million American adults are equally obese. In China, there are 57.3 million older people and 15.3 million children – in India, the number of minors affected is 14.4 million. In contrast, only 1% of children are overweight in Bangladesh . Likewise, only 1% of adults suffer from it in Vietnam.
According to this report, in Spain, 17.8% of adults –7.1 million people– and 8% of children are overweight or obese. “This is one of the greatest medical challenges of our time,” says Ashkan Afshin, a researcher with the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington, who coordinated the trial. Over the next decade, Afshin and his collaborators will assess the evolution of this condition and share their findings with scientists and governments so that strategies can be developed to deal with it .
References:
(2017). Health Effects of Overweight and Obesity in 195 Countries over 25 Years. The New England Journal of Medicine. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1614362
