Increasing Global Obesity Rates

A recent study concluded that obesity rates among children and adolescents worldwide increased four times from 1990 to 2022, while it was more than double in case of adults.

Key Findings of the Study:

• The study was conducted by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC), in collaboration with the World Health Organization.
• NCD-RisC is a network of health scientists that provides data on risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
• Over 1,500 researchers in more than 190 countries analysed weight and height measurements of over 220 million people aged five years or older.
• Body Mass Index (BMI) was analyzed to understand how obesity and underweight have changed worldwide from 1990 to 2022.
  • BMI is a rough measure of a person’s total body fat and calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by their height in meters squared (kg/m²).
• The total number of children, adolescents and adults worldwide living with obesity has surpassed one billion.
• In total, 159 million children and adolescents, and 879 million adults were obese in 2022.
• Obesity rates among children and adolescents increased four times from 1990 to 2022, while obesity rates among adults have more than doubled.
• Along with the declining prevalence of people who are underweight since 1990, obesity has become the most common form of malnutrition in most countries.

Findings related to India:

• In India, both obesity and underweight continue to co-exist.
• Both abdominal obesity and generalized obesity are increasing in the population, with variations in rural areas.
• The obesity rate increased from 0.1% in 1990 to 3.1% in 2022 for girls, and 0.1% to 3.9%, for boys.
• In the prevalence of obesity category for girls and boys, India ranked 174th highest in the world in 2022.
• In women, the obesity rate increased from 1.2% in 1990 to 9.8% in 2022 and in men from 0.5% to 5.4%.