Vietnam among countries with lowest obesity rate: Global study

(VNF) - Vietnam and Bangladesh are the two countries with the lowest adult obesity rate at 1 per cent, according to the latest global study released on June 12^th.

The study also unveiled the highest level of obesity among children and young adults was in the United States at nearly 13 per cent while Egypt topped the list for adult obesity at about 35 per cent.

China and India had the most alarming number of obese children with 15.3 million and 14.4 million, respectively. Meanwhile, the U.S. with 79.4 million had the largest adult obesity figure, followed by China with 57.3 million.

An increasing number globally are dying from health problems linked to being overweight, such as cardiovascular disease, said the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Illustrative image. (Source: AFP)

Conducted in 195 countries and territories over a 35 year-period, the research showed that more than 2 billion adults and children, or one third of the world’s population, are now overweight or obese.

The researchers analyzed data from 68.5 million people between 1980 and 2015 to explore trends as well as figures regarding overweight and obesity rates.

The data revealed that the number of people affected by obesity has doubled since 1980 in 73 countries, and continued to rise across most other countries included in the analysis.

Obesity levels were higher among women than men across all age groups, which correlates with previous findings on obesity.

Body mass index is the ratio between a person's weight and height; a BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight, while anything over 30 is obese.

In 2015, some 2.2 billion children and adults worldwide were overweight, of which 108 million children and over 600 million adults being obese, said the study, adding that the rate of increase in childhood obesity was greater than that of adults.

The same year, 4 million deaths worldwide attributed to excess body weight, according to the research.

The findings represent a growing and spreading a global public health crisis, triggering many problems, because obesity leads to risks of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and other life-threatening conditions, said the research’s authors.

The results of the study are based on data from the most recent Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) to quantify the magnitude of health loss from all major diseases, injuries, and risk factors by age, sex, and population.

GBD is the most comprehensive worldwide observational epidemiological study to date. It describes mortality and morbidity from major diseases, injuries and risk factors to health at global, national and regional levels. Examining trends from 1990 to the present and making comparisons across populations enables understanding of the changing health challenges facing people across the world in the 21^st century./.

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