More than 2.1 billion people, or close to 30 per cent of the global population, are overweight or obese.  This carries a steep economic toll: the global cost of obesity, at around $2 trillion or 2.8 per cent of world economic output, is about the same as smoking or armed conflict.

And, if growth continues at its current pace, almost half of the world’s adult population is projected to be overweight or obese by 2030, driving personal, social and economic costs even higher, said the report “Overcoming obesity:  An initial economic analysis” released by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), the business and economics research arm of McKinsey & Company.

In a bid to help stem this growth, MGI has catalogued a comprehensive list of interventions being deployed or piloted around the world and assessed their cost-effectiveness and impact.

In doing so, it has determined the broad shape of a programme to stem the crisis and identified key barriers to implementation, delivering a report that is unique in its breadth of focus on the solution, not the problem.

MGI has found that an ambitious comprehensive and sustained portfolio of initiatives by a broad coalition of partners - including industry, government, healthcare systems and NGOs - is required to support the broad behavioural change necessary.  These initiatives would need to draw on interventions that rely less on individual responsibility and more on changes to the environment.

Capturing the full potential impact also requires a broad programme of initiatives between government, employers, educators, retailers, restaurants and food and drink manufacturers.  However, to deliver real progress, there are a number of imperatives including deploying as many interventions as possible at scale, adopting a trial and error approach, overcoming misaligned incentives and increasing investment in research.

Richard Dobbs, director of MGI, said: “Efforts to address obesity have been piecemeal up till now.  Yet obesity is a systemic issue, born of many interlocking factors, and only a systemic response will do.  MGI’s aim, in publishing this research, is to build on existing analysis of the problem to explore the shape of a solution.  This report is just the start and we hope it prompts further debate.”

Specifically, MGI studied 74 interventions to address obesity in 18 areas that are being discussed or piloted somewhere around the world. It then conducted a meta-analysis of research available. Of the 74 interventions, there was sufficient evidence to estimate the potential cost and impact of 44 of them.

On the basis of this analysis, MGI developed a perspective on what it will take to begin to reverse rising obesity prevalence in a developed market.  As a starting point for the research on this issue, MGI has assessed what would be needed in a potential programme for the UK.

Examples of interventions catalogued include:

• Portion control in fast food packaged goods, and food service

• Investing in parental education

• Reformulating fast food and processed foods

• Reconfiguring food and drink promotions

• Introducing healthy meals in schools and workplaces

• Changing the school curriculum to include more physical exercise

• Encouraging more physical activities by introducing bicycle lanes.

In the near future, as part of ongoing research on this topic, MGI intends to present similar analyses for emerging markets, potentially starting with China and Mexico, a statement said. – TradeArabia News Service