New study finds that overweight and obesity has doubled in 70 countries since 1980

On 12 June 2017, a new study was released by the New England Journal of Medicine on the Health Effects of Overweight and Obesity in 195 Countries over 25 Years. The study comes at a time where the rising pandemic of obesity is receiving major attention, yet the effects of this attention on trends and the disease burden of obesity remain uncertain.

The study is based on the Global Burden of Disease study data and methods and finds that in 2015, a total of 107.7 million children and 603.7 million adults were obese. Since 1980, the prevalence of obesity has doubled in more than 70 countries and has continuously increased in most other countries.

Access the study: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1614362 

Although the prevalence of obesity among children has been lower than that among adults, the rate of increase in childhood obesity in many countries has been greater than the rate of increase in adult obesity.

The rapid increase in the prevalence and disease burden of elevated body-mass index (BMI) highlights the need for continued focus on surveillance of BMI and identification, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based interventions to address this problem.