A study released this Friday estimates that by 2022 there would be more than one billion obese people in the world, with the percentage having more than doubled among adults and more than quadrupled among children and young people since 1990.
The study, published in the British medical journal The Lancet and with the contribution of the World Health Organization, indicates that almost half of the adult population (43%) would be overweight in 2022. .
In Portugal, obesity affected 2.3 million adults and 107 thousand children and adolescents (aged 5 to 19) in 2022.
In adults, the obesity prevalence rate varied in the country that year, between 22% (men) and 23% (women). In children and young people, the prevalence ranged between 6.4% (girls) and 9.3% (boys).
Since 1990, the prevalence of the disease has increased in Portugal both in adults – 14.3 percentage points in men and 7.0 percentage points in women – and in children and adolescents – 1.6 percentage points in girls and 4.4 percentage points in boys.
In total, on a global scale, 879 million adults and 159 million children and young people were obese in 2022, estimates the study, which is based on the analysis of data from 221 million people from more than 190 countries.
From 1990 to 2022, the obesity rate has more than doubled among adults – from 8.8% to 18.5% in women and from 4.8% to 14.0% in men – and more than quadrupled in children and young people – rising from 1.7% to 6.9% for girls and from 2.1% to 9.3% for boys.
Tonga, American Samoa (Polynesia) and Nauru (Micronesia) are the countries or territories with the highest prevalence of obese adults in 2021 (more than 60% of the adult population).
In children and adolescents, the obesity prevalence rate was highest in Niue and the Cook Islands (more than 30% of the child and youth population).
The study also presents data on excessive thinness (weight less than recommended), considered a form of malnutrition alongside obesity.
Between 1990 and 2022, the global proportion of children and young people who are too thin has fallen by around a fifth for girls and more than a third for boys, while for adults it has fallen by half.
Two years ago, there were 347 million adults and 185 million children and adolescents underweight, according to study estimates.
In Portugal, excessive thinness affected 117 thousand adults and 28,700 children and young people in 2022. In adults, the prevalence rate of lack of weight varied between 2.4% (women) and 1.5% (men). In children and adolescents, the prevalence ranged between 1.4% (girls) and 2.6% (boys).
Timor-Leste, Eritrea and Ethiopia are the countries with the highest prevalence of excessively thin adults in 2022 (more than 20% of the adult population).
In children and adolescents, the prevalence rate of underweight was highest in India, Sri Lanka and Niger (more than 15% of the child and adolescent population).
The study concludes that, in all age groups analyzed, the combined weight of the two forms of malnutrition (obesity and excessive thinness) increased in many countries between 1990 and 2022 due to increasing obesity rates.
Countries in North Africa and the Middle East, as well as the Pacific and Caribbean islands, had the highest malnutrition rates in 2022.
One of the co-authors of the study, Guha Pradeepa, from the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, an Indian organization for researching diabetes, warns, quoted in the statement in The Lancet magazine, of the risk of climate change, the disruptions caused by the covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine worsen malnutrition by “increasing poverty and the cost of nutrient-dense foods.”
“The repercussions of this are insufficient nutrition in some countries and families and the switch to less healthy foods in others”, he warned, defending “comprehensive policies to face these challenges”.
