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Has Obesity Become a Global Problem? Obese or overweight people are at a higher risk of getting heart disease, diabetes and some types of cancer. Yet, it seems that the number of people who are overweight is increasing globally as a result of the prevailing unhealthy lifestyle. United States has been considered as the country with the worst weight problem. Statistics shows that an estimated two-thirds of Americans are overweight and a third of these are obese. How about other parts of the world? Has obesity already become a global problem? A recent report by researchers at the French National health research institute Inserm in Villejuif, published in October 2007 in the journal Circulation, revealed that people are getting fatter in all parts of the world, with the possible exception of East Asia. In a one-day global snapshot of obesity, the researchers found that overall, 24 percent of men and 27 percent of women visiting their doctors on that day were obese, and another 30 percent of men and 40 percent of women were overweight. Such figures have put the rest of the world to be much closer to the United States. The researchers evaluated 168,159 adults who were seeing their primary care doctors in 63 countries across 5 continents, excluding the United States, in 2006. With the exception of Southern and Eastern Asia, 60 percent of men and 50 percent of women in all other regions were either overweight or obese, using body mass index (BMI) as a measure of overweight. BMI calculates height to weight. Despite of some doubts on BMI, it is still considered as an accurate way of assessing overweight in most adults except highly muscled athletes.
People with a BMI of 18-24 are considered healthy. Those with BMIs of 25 to 30 are overweight while anyone with a BMI of 30 or more is obese. In Eastern Asia, only 7 percent of people were obese, compared to 36 percent of people seeing their doctors in Canada, 38 percent of women in Middle Eastern countries and 40 percent in South Africa. Canada and South Africa have the highest percentage of overweight people, with an average BMI of 29 among both men and women in Canada and 29 among women in South Africa. In Northern Europe, men and women had an average BMI of 27 and 26 respectively. In Southern Europe, the average BMI was 28, while the average BMI was just under 28 in Latin America. In Australia, BMI was 28 for men and 27.5 for women. The study did draw some criticism from other experts. Clearly, “people studied were all seeing doctors at that time” creates some problems. No doubt in industrialized countries, those among the most overweight are those who are the poorest. However, this might be entirely different in the developing world where the poorest have little or no chance of seeing a doctor. They are usually undernourished, too. Yet, the findings do indicate that health care providers are not paying enough attention to people who are too fat. Doctors can do more to help their patients.
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