A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals the shocking news that 712 million children, women and men are obese.

In one of the most comprehensive pieces of research done on the subject of obesity, the study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington said the rising rate of obesity over the past 30 years is causing millions of premature deaths and widespread health problems.

The researchers analyzed data from 68.5 million persons to assess the trends in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adults between 1980 and 2015.

Using the Global Burden of Disease study data and methods, they also quantified the burden of disease related to high body-mass index (BMI), according to age, sex, cause, and BMI in 195 countries between 1990 and 2015.

The results of the study also showed how since 1980, the prevalence of obesity has doubled in more than 70 countries and has continuously increased in most other countries.

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, said the study.

High BMI accounted for 4 million deaths globally, nearly 40 per cent of which occurred in persons who were not obese.

More than two thirds of deaths related to high BMI were due to cardiovascular disease. The disease burden related to high BMI has increased since 1990; however, the rate of this increase has been attenuated owing to decreases in underlying rates of death from cardiovascular disease, said the study.

The researchers concluded that the ‘rapid increase in the prevalence and disease burden of elevated BMI highlights the need for continued focus on surveillance of BMI and identification, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based interventions to address this problem’.

Commenting on the report, Jan Alderlieste, the chief operations officer in Europe, the Middle East and Russia, at Tanita, a world leader in precision electronic scales, said the study shows how ‘prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing worldwide, bringing a legacy of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease,many cancers,and an array of musculoskeletal disorders’.

Jan Alderlieste called on the global health community to develop prevention policies addressing obesity such as encouraging people to regularly monitor their weight using advanced body composition technologies.

“Tanita’s innovative body measurement technologies are designed to help people to understand what is happening in their bodies and end encourage them to eat sensibly, increase physical activity and fine tune diet and training by showing them the positive results than can be achieved,” he added.-TradeArabia News Service