Overweight and obese 60% of adults in 2050...Urgent policy reform and action needed
Mar 05, 2025
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This is the result of an international research team led by Dr. Jessica Kerr (Australia's Murdoch Children's Research Institute) recently published in the medical journal The Lancet. According to the research team, this result was obtained by estimating the ratio of overweight and obesity between 1990 and 2021 of 204 countries and regions around the world and predicting overweight and obesity between 2022 and 2050 with various data.
In this study, the research team estimated the overweight and obese rates of children and adolescents (5-14 years old), adolescents (15-24 years old), and adults (25 years old or older) in 204 countries and regions around the world from 1990 to 2021, and predicted overweight and obese changes from 2022 to 2050 using up to 1350 data, including major national data.
The criteria for overweight and obesity were defined as body mass index (BMI), over 18 years of age defined as overweight BMI of 25 kg/㎡ or more and less than 30 kg/㎡, and obesity was defined as BMI of 30 kg/㎡ or more.
As a result, the ratio of overweight and obese adults and children and adolescents more than doubled over the past 30 years, and the overweight and obese population increased from 731 million in 1990 to 2.11 billion in 2021, and from 198 million to 493 million in children and adolescents.
In addition, if the trend continues and urgent policy reforms and measures against obesity are not taken, 3.8 billion adults, or about 60% of the world's adults, and 746 million children and adolescents, or a third of children and adolescents, will be overweight or obese by 2050. In particular, the rate of increase in obesity among children and adolescents worldwide is expected to outpace the rate of increase in overweight, and is expected to increase significantly from 2022 to 2030. At the same time, about a quarter of the world's adult obese population is expected to be 65 or older by 2050, adding to the burden on the already heavily burdened healthcare system, causing major damage to the healthcare system in resource-poor countries.
The research team said it is not enough to simply recognize obesity as a global health problem, and a more active and goal-oriented response is needed.
In low- and middle-income countries, prevention of obesity should be the top priority of policy, emphasizing the need for ultimately changing diets and stronger political efforts within the sustainable global food system.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
