More than one billion people in the world are now living with obesity, research has found, with obesity among adults more than doubling since 1990.
Worryingly for the future, the study in The Lancet found that obesity had quadrupled among children and adolescents (or those aged five to 19 years). The data also showed that nearly half, 43%, of adults were overweight in 2022.
Conversely, although rates of undernutrition have dropped, it remains a public health challenge in many places, particularly in South-East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
The research was conducted by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, a network of health scientists around the world, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO).
Countries with the highest combined rates of underweight and obesity in 2022 were the island nations in the Pacific and the Caribbean and those in the Middle East and North Africa, the study found.
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The researchers analysed weight and height measurements from more than 220 million people aged five years or older (63 million people aged five to 19 years, and 158 million aged 20 years or older), representing more than 190 countries.
More than 1,500 researchers contributed to the study, which looked at body mass index (BMI) to understand how obesity and underweight have changed worldwide from 1990 to 2022.
In the UK, around 16.8 million people are living with obesity, the research estimated, which includes eight million women, 7.4 million men, 760,000 boys and 590,000 girls.
The UK obesity rate among adults increased from 13.8% in 1990 to 28.3% in 2022 for women and 10.7% to 26.9% in 2022 for men, it added.
For children and adolescents, the rate jumped from 4.7% in 1990 to 10.1% in 2022 for girls and 4.3% to 12.4% in 2022 for boys.
According to the researchers, the latest findings highlight an urgent need for comprehensive policies to tackle the burden of malnutrition, including improving the accessibility and affordability of nutritious food, as well as prevention and management strategies for obesity and underweight.
Professor Majid Ezzati, of Imperial College London’s School of Public Health, and senior author of the study, said: “It is very concerning that the epidemic of obesity that was evident among adults in much of the world in 1990 is now mirrored in school-aged children and adolescents.
“At the same time, hundreds of millions are still affected by undernutrition, particularly in some of the poorest parts of the world. To successfully tackle both forms of malnutrition it is vital we significantly improve the availability and affordability of healthy, nutritious foods,” he added.
“This new study highlights the importance of preventing and managing obesity from early life to adulthood, through diet, physical activity, and adequate care, as needed,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general.
“Getting back on track to meet the global targets for curbing obesity will take the work of governments and communities, supported by evidence-based policies from WHO and national public health agencies. Importantly, it requires the cooperation of the private sector, which must be accountable for the health impacts of their products”.
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