Combined Prevalence of Obesity, Underweight Increasing Worldwide

FRIDAY, March 1, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- The combined prevalence of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, according to a study published online Feb. 29 in The Lancet.

Nowell H. Phelps, from Imperial College London, and colleagues used data from 3,663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight to estimate the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity. For 200 countries and territories, trends in the prevalence of different body mass index categories were estimated separately for adults (aged 20 years or older) and for children (aged 5 to 19 years) from 1990 to 2022.

The researchers found that in adults, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity decreased in 11 countries for women and in 17 countries for men (6 and 9 percent, respectively), with a posterior probability of at least 0.80 that the observed changes were true decreases. In 162 and 140 countries, the combined prevalence increased for women and men (81 and 70 percent, respectively), with a posterior probability of at least 0.80. The combined prevalence was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and in countries in the Middle East and North Africa in 2022. The prevalence of obesity was higher than underweight, with a posterior probability of at least 0.80 in 177 and 145 countries (89 and 73 percent) for women and men, respectively, in 2022, while the prevalence of underweight was higher in 16 and 39 countries (8 and 20 percent) for women and men, respectively.

"There is an urgent need for obesity prevention, supporting weight loss and reducing disease risk (via treatment of the mediators of its hazards, such as hypertension and hypercholesterolemia) in those with obesity," the authors write.

One author reported personal fees from Novo Nordisk.

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