Over a billion people struggling with obesity globally: Lancet study

The researchers used 3663 studies with height and weight measurements from 222 million participants aged 5 years and older, including 63 million aged 5 to 19 years.

Over one billion people worldwide are now living with obesity, a new Lancet study has revealed.

The report, published on February 29, includes around 880 million adults and 159 million children from 2022 data. The prevalence of obesity among adults has more than doubled since 1990 and quadrupled among children and adolescents aged 5 to 19.

The researchers used 3663 studies with height and weight measurements from 222 million participants aged 5 years and older, including 63 million aged 5 to 19 years.

The study discloses that 43% of adults were categorised as overweight in 2022. Although undernutrition rates have decreased, it remains a significant public health challenge in regions such as South-East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

The countries facing the highest combined rates of underweight and obesity are found in the Pacific, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and North Africa. These countries are Tonga and American Samoa for women and American Samoa and Nauru for men, with some 70-80% of adults living with obesity.

India ranks 182 out of 197 countries for women with obesity and 180 for men. The country ranked 174 for both girls and boys. India not only showed a burden of obesity, it also showed a burden of underweight among children.

The countries with the largest number of underweight adults in 2022 were India, China, Japan (for women only), Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh. As per the report, the countries with the largest absolute numbers of adults with obesity in 2022 were the USA, China, and India.

These two divergent peaks show that India has a double burden of both thinness and obesity, which remains a significant health challenge.

Obesity, overweight and underweight are all forms of malnutrition. While undernutrition is responsible for half of the deaths of children under 5, obesity can cause non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and some cancers.