During the last three decades, the worldwide prevalence of obesity has nearly doubled,
and the mean body mass index has increased worldwide by 0.4 kg/m2 per decade for men and 0.5 kg/m2 per decade for women [
[1]
,
[2]
], and continues to increase globally. The Global Burden of Disease study recently
published [
- Finucane M.M.
- Stevens G.A.
- Cowan M.J.
- Danaei G.
- Lin J.K.
- Paciorek C.J.
- et al.
Global burden of metabolic risk factors of chronic diseases collaborating group (body
mass index). National, regional, and global trends in body-mass index since 1980:
Systematic analysis of health examination surveys and epidemiological studies with
960 country-years and 9.1 million participants.
Lancet. 2011; 377: 557-567
[3]
] showed a greater increase in the rate of exposure to high body mass index than in
the rate of the related disease burden. The study, in which researchers assembled
data from 195 countries to model trends in overweight and obesity and related morbidity
and mortality, showed that the prevalence of obesity has more than doubled since 1980
and is now 5% in children and 12% in adults, closely mirroring similar global trends
in type 2 diabetes. Moreover, apart from a possible recent plateau in the prevalence
of obesity in high-income countries, the prevalence has increased in all other sociodemographic
strata. These results undoubtedly offer a discouraging reminder that the global obesity
epidemic is worsening in most parts of the world and that its implications regarding
both physical health and economic health remain ominous [
[3]
].Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to European Journal of Internal MedicineAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Obesity phenotypes and their paradoxical association with cardiovascular diseases.Eur J Intern Med. 2018; 48: 6-17
- Global burden of metabolic risk factors of chronic diseases collaborating group (body mass index). National, regional, and global trends in body-mass index since 1980: Systematic analysis of health examination surveys and epidemiological studies with 960 country-years and 9.1 million participants.Lancet. 2011; 377: 557-567
- Health effects of overweight and obesity in 195 countries over 25 years.N Engl J Med. 2017; 377: 13-27
- Obesity-related adjunctive systo-diastolic ventricular dysfunction in patients with hypertension: Echocardiographic assessment with tissue Doppler velocity and strain imaging.Hypertens Res. 2011; 34: 468-473
- Obesity and cardiovascular disease: Friend or foe?.Eur Heart J. 2016; 37: 3560-3568
- The relationship between obesity and hypertension: An updated comprehensive overview on vicious twins.Hypertens Res. 2017; 40: 947-963
- The interaction of cardiorespiratory fitness with obesity and the obesity paradox in cardiovascular disease.Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2017; 60: 30-44
- Physical activity and cardiovascular prevention: Is healthy urban living a possible reality or utopia?.Eur J Intern Med. 2017; 40: 8-15
- Metabolically healthy obese and cardiovascular diseases: A phenotype misunderstanding.J Am Coll Cardiol. 2018; 71: 813-814
- Exercise training in patients with pulmonary and systemic hypertension: A unique therapy for two different diseases.Eur J Intern Med. 2018; 47: 17-24
Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 07, 2018
Accepted:
March 29,
2018
Received in revised form:
March 28,
2018
Received:
March 24,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
