Obesity trends

Waistlines Expand Worldwide

By Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: February 03, 2011 Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. Action Points   Explain that mean BMI increased worldwide from 1980 to 2008, to the point where an estimated 502 million people were obese in 2008. Note that despite the increasing prevalence of obesity, there were slight overall decreases in systolic blood pressure and fasting total cholesterol levels. The world is getting heavier, an analysis of trends in nearly 200 countries showed. From 1980 to 2008, the mean body mass index around the world increased by 0.4 kg/m2 per decade for men and by 0.5 kg/m2 per decade for women, Majid Ezzati, PhD, of the Imperial College London School of Public Health, and colleagues reported online in The Lancet. In 2008, an estimated 1.46 billion adults worldwide had a BMI of 25 kg/m2 or higher, including 502 million who were obese. During the study period, the age-standardized prevalence of obesity increased dramatically in both men (from 4.8% to 9.8%) and women (from 7.9% to 13.8%)./.../