Obesity among men has more than tripled globally – and more than doubled among women – since 1975, researchers reveal today.
And if weight gain continues at the same pace by 2025, about one-fifth of adults worldwide will be obese, it warns.
Analysis of trends in body mass index (BMI) published in the latest edition of The Lancet reveals that the number of obese people has risen from 105 million in 1975 to 641 million in 2014.
When corrected for age, the proportion of obese men has more than tripled from 3.2% to 10.8%, while for women that figure more than doubled from 6.4% to 14.9% since 1975, with people becoming an average 1.5kg heavier each decade.
Senior author Professor Majid Ezzati from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, London, UK, warned that if the rate of obesity continues at the same rate, by 2025 about 18% of men and 21% of women worldwide will be obese, and more than 6% of men and 9% of women will be severely obese.
“Over the past 40 years, we have changed from a world in which underweight prevalence was more than double that of obesity, to one in which more people are obese than underweight,” he said.
“If present trends continue, not only will the world not meet the obesity target of halting the rise in the prevalence of obesity at its 2010 level by 2025, but more women will be severely obese than underweight by 2025.
“To avoid an epidemic of severe obesity, new policies that can slow down and stop the worldwide increase in body weight must be implemented quickly and rigorously evaluated, including smart food policies and improved health-care training.”
The Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Risk Factor Collaboration pooled data from 1698 population-based studies, surveys, and reports, involving a total of 19.2 million men and women from 186 countries.
While women in Singapore, Japan, and some European countries – including Czech Republic, Belgium, France, and Switzerland – saw very little increase in average BMI (less than 0.2 kg/m² per decade) over the 40 years, island nations in Polynesia and Micronesia recorded the highest average BMI of 34.8 kg/m² for women and 32.2 kg/m² for men in American Samoa.
Among high-income English-speaking countries, the USA recorded the highest BMI for men and women, with more than one in four of the world’s severely obese men being found in the USA and almost one in five of the world’s severely obese women.
The UK recorded the third highest average BMI in Europe for women and tenth highest for men and the report found that almost a fifth of the world’s obese adults – 118 million – live in just six high-income English-speaking countries—Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, UK, and USA.
Trends in adult body-mass index in 200 countries from 1975 to 2014: a pooled analysis of 1698 population-based measurement studies with 19·2 million participants NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC). Lancet 1 April 2016; 387: 1377–96 [abstract]
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