Obesity rate among children and adolescents has quadrupled in 30 years, according to WHO

Obesity now affects more than a billion people worldwide, including children and adolescents, according to an estimate published Friday. A scourge that does not only concern rich countries.

More than a billion people worldwide are affected by obesity, warns the World Health Organization (WHO). That’s one in eight people on the planet. The World Health Organization had not imagined crossing this threshold before 2030, but the latest figures published Friday, March 1, in the medical journal The Lancet, covering 190 countries, show that obesity is increasing faster than expected, particularly in low-income countries.

Overall among adults, obesity rates have doubled in the past 30 years. Even more worrying, during this period, obesity increased fourfold among children and adolescents. “We tended to view obesity as a problem of the rich, say the experts, but we now see that it’s a global problem.”

The WHO considers this growth in obesity to be a growing form of malnutrition. Often, malnutrition is associated with being “underweight” with lack of food. This study also effectively shows that in Eritrea or Ethiopia, for example, one in five adults continues to be underweight. But overall, the proportion of adults suffering from malnutrition and excessive thinness in the world has fallen by more than half in the space of 30 years. Now in most countries of the world, there are more people overweight than underweight.

This situation is accompanied by an increase in mortality due to other pathologies, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and certain cancers. To effectively combat these two forms of malnutrition, insists the WHO, it is urgent to improve access to affordable, healthy and nutritious food for everyone, especially as climate change and wars increase dietary risks.

No miracle solution

On this problem of obesity, France ranks among the 50 countries in the world with the lowest percentages. In our country, 17% of adults are obese and 4% of children and adolescents as well. This chronic disease which weighs on life expectancy must be better managed through prevention and lifestyle habits, the High Health Authority indicated this week. Unfortunately, there is no miracle solution, recalls HAS. Obesity surgery should only be done as a last resort.