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A new study has warned that more than half of adults worldwide will be overweight or obese by 2050, posing what has been described as an "unparalleled threat" to global health and will put significant strain on healthcare systems around the world.
Knewz.com has learned that the study, published on March 3, projected that over one-third of children and younger people will also suffer the same fate by 2050, marking an alarming rise in obesity among the demographic.
The study used established methodology from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2021 to calculate the number of overweight and obese children and adolescents and then calculated the projected numbers for 2050.
"Primary data for our models included 1321 unique measured and self-reported anthropometric data sources from 180 countries and territories from survey microdata, reports, and published literature," the study mentioned.
"These data were used to estimate age-standardized global, regional, and national overweight prevalence and obesity prevalence (separately) for children and young adolescents (aged 5–14 years, typically in school and cared for by child health services) and older adolescents (aged 15–24 years, increasingly out of school and cared for by adult services) by sex for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2021."
The report found that there are currently 2.11 billion adults aged 25 or above and 493 million children and young people aged five to 24 who are overweight or obese.
In 1990, their numbers were 731 million and 198 million respectively, showing a sharp increase in obesity worldwide.
By 2050, the study predicts that the number of overweight and obese adults aged 25 and above will reach 3.8 billion, i.e. over half of their global population, and that the number of children and young people suffering from obesity will reach 746 million—more than one-third of their global population.
"The research predicts a particularly alarming rise (121%) in obesity among children and younger people, with the number predicted to be living with obesity predicted to hit 360 million by 2050," reports have mentioned.
It is worth noting that more than half of the adults classified as overweight or obese in 2021 live in just eight countries, namely, China (402 million), India (180 million), the US (172 million), Brazil (88 million), Russia (71 million), Mexico (58 million), Indonesia (52 million), and Egypt (41 million).
The study wrote: "Despite the well-documented consequences of obesity during childhood and adolescence and future risks of excess body mass on non-communicable diseases in adulthood, coordinated global action on excess body mass in early life is still insufficient."
The report further mentioned that by 2050, "about one in three children and young people living with obesity (130 million) are forecast to be in just two regions – north Africa and the Middle East and Latin America and the Caribbean – with seismic health, economic and societal consequences."
The study warned that the current trends show that children worldwide are gaining weight faster than the previous generations, and are falling prey to obesity earlier than the previous generations.
The paper, published in The Lancet, forecasts:
"At a regional level, the following populations are forecast to have transitioned to obesity (vs overweight) predominance before 2041–50: children and adolescents (males and females aged 5–24 years) in north Africa and the Middle East and Tropical Latin America; males aged 5–14 years in east Asia, central and southern sub-Saharan Africa, and central Latin America; females aged 5–14 years in Australasia; females aged 15–24 years in Australasia, high-income North America, and southern sub-Saharan Africa; and males aged 15–24 years in high-income North America."
It is worth noting that a 2024 study out of Stockholm, Sweden, revealed that having obesity in childhood doubles the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) later in life.
Furthermore, being overweight or obese also increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and cancer occurring at a younger age, thus posing an “unparalleled threat” of early death.