preview

Epidemiology Of Obesity

Decent Essays

Obesity is a leading preventable cause of death worldwide and its prevalence is increasing at an alarming rate (Barness et al, 2007). For thousands of years obesity was rarely seen, it was not until the 20th century that it became common, some much so that in 1997, the World Health Organization (WHO) formally recognized obesity as a global epidemic (Caballero, 2007).
Overweight and obesity now affects at least 1.7 billion people. With the largest proportion in developing countries: In 2010, almost 2 billion people of the world’s population are overweight (BMI between 25 and 29.9 kg/m2) and more than half a billion are obese (BMI > 30 kg/m2). Using standard international criteria by 2015, the figure will be nearer 2.3 billion overweight and …show more content…

This is largely due to the fact that severely obese men often are dead of comorbid medical conditions, especially cardiac arrhythmias and coronary artery disease, by age 50 (Monteiro et al., 2004).
Obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects health or wellbeing. As methods that determine body fat directly are difficult, the diagnosis of obesity is often based on BMI. Due to the rising prevalence of obesity and its many adverse health effects, it is being recognized as a serious public health concern (Lobstein and Leach, 2007).
The term overweight rather than obese is often used in children as it is less stigmatizing. Changing diet and decrease of physical activity are believed to be the two most important causes of the increase in obesity rate in children (Bessesen, …show more content…

The increased prevalence of obesity among high income groups in nonindusrialized countries may have changed as non-indusrialized countries become more affluent and obesity becomes more prevalent in individuals who have low socioeconomic status (Monteiro et al., 2004).
Egypt studied the prevelance of obesity and overweight among their populations and results were annoying. Salem et al. (2002) found that the prevalence of obesity among Egyptian children was 14.7% and 15.08% for male and female respectively.
In United States of America (USA), the prevalence of obesity was 10% among children 2 to 5 years of age and 15% among adolescents. When children at risk for obesity (overweight) were included, the values increased to 20% and 30%, respectively. Therefore, > 1 of every 4 patients examined by pediatricians either is obese or is considered to be at high risk for developing this challenging health problem (Ogden et al.,

Get Access