Almost a third of adults and children around the world are overweight, a study has found.
Many are at risk of potentially fatal diseases despite not being classified as obese, say researchers. Of four million deaths attributed to excess body weight in 2015, 40 per cent were cases in which body mass index (BMI) fell below the obesity threshold.
Malta was included in the study, which was carried out in 195 countries and territories.
The prevalence of overweight adults remained almost the same among males and females between 1980 and 2015 but the prevalence of obesity increased by a few percentage points in the same period. However, both the rate of overweight and obese children and teens increased between these dates by about three per cent.
This is in line with various health studies that included Malta in the past years. In October 2016, Malta was confirmed by a European Health Interview survey as the most obese nation in the EU. Another study by PwC Malta revealed that in the same year, adult obesity cost the country almost €36 million in terms of direct and indirect financial costs.
People who shrug off weight gain do so at their own risk
As regards children, approximately 40 per cent of school-aged children were found to be overweight or obese.
The findings, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, highlight a “growing and disturbing global health crisis”, said the authors. Christopher Murray, one of the researchers from the University of Washington, said: “People who shrug off weight gain do so at their own risk – risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and other life-threatening conditions.
“Those half-serious New Year’s resolutions to lose weight should become year-round commitments to lose weight and prevent future weight gain.”
The findings are partly based on data from the Global Burden of Disease study which examined the health impact of more than 300 diseases and types of injury.
Other studies on the effects of excess weight on numerous cancers also contributed to the results.
In 2015, about 2.2 billion children and adults worldwide – 30 per cent of the global population – were overweight, said the researchers.
The total included almost 108 million children and more than 600 million adults with a BMI above 30, meaning they were obese.
Egypt had the largest proportion of obese adults, making up 35 per cent of the population.
The US had the highest rate of obesity among children and young people, 13 per cent of whom fell into this category. It also had the largest number of obese adults, 79.4 million, in 2015.