London United Kingdome (Commonwealth Union)_More than four billion people, primarily children in lower income countries will be overweight or obese by 2035. This is 51% of the world’s population as it is now. These are the alarming findings detailed within The World Obesity Federation’s 2023 atlas, which issues a clear warning that if policymakers don’t take preventive action immediately, the situation could clearly be much worse.
With obesity rates among children and adolescents rising fastest, the report found that childhood obesity will more than double from its 2020 levels, jumping from 175 million to 208 million. And there is a cost to the future generation being overweight too – the cost to society is a significant USD 4 trillion annually or 3 percent of the global GDP. And that cost will mostly be felt by low or middle income countries in Asia and Africa.
The report uses body mass index (BMI) for its analysis based according to WHO guidelines. A person with a score of over 25 is overweight while an over 30 BMI score is considered obese. Just three years ago, 2.6 billion people or 38 percent of the global population fell into these categories and for it to jump 12 per cent in just fifteen years is not healthy, to say the least.
The WOF is asking governments to take immediate action to avoid health, social and economic costs afflicting the younger generation, which will have a permeating impact on overall development indices.
Overweight and obese people could die at least one to three years prematurely while also suffering from a range of Non-Communicable Diseases including stroke, cancer and heart disease. Diseases also take a toll on a country’s socio-economic development as those who are sick will not contribute to a country’s economic development and, take a toll on health services. With children and adolescents prone to obesity, this is doubly manifested as an unhealthy future generation will undeniably impact a nation’s productivity and ability to create economic, social and environmental sustainability for its future.
