As the obesity epidemic worsens around the world, new findings reveal that it will get worse in the future and more people will get diagnosed with diabetes.
Findings Of The Obesity Study
Researchers project that 22 percent of the world's population will be obese by 2045. The findings were presented at the 2018 European Congress on Obesity in Vienna. These numbers are up from 14 percent in 2017.
The obesity rate in the United States is also projected to increase from 39 percent in 2017 to 55 percent in 2045.
In addition to obesity, the researchers believe that diabetes will also sharply increase from 9.1 percent in 2017 to 11.7 percent by 2045. That means that one in eight people around the world will have diabetes. In the United States, diabetes is projected to jump from 14 percent to 18 percent.
The increase in diabetes is linked to the increase in obesity.
"These numbers underline the staggering challenge the world will face in the future in terms of numbers of people who are obese, or have Type-2 diabetes, or both," said Alan Moses, chief medical officer at Novo Nordisk, a Denmark healthcare company. "[In addition to] the medical challenges these people will face, the costs to countries' health systems will be enormous,"
How Did Researchers Discover These Obesity Statistics?
To conduct this study, the researchers analyzed global medical data from the World Health Organization. They examined populations between 2000-2014. The data was organized by country, age, and body mass index (BMI). The researchers examined the diabetes risk for each group and estimated potential growth.
BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. It is a common statistic in the medical community, but it has been scrutinized for not being a good indication of health.
Although the data was peer-reviewed for selection at the 2018 European Congress, it has not been published in a scientific journal yet.
Future Implications Of Obesity
On a positive note, the researchers believe that humanity can reverse the global obesity trends if there is an aggressive and coordinated effort to reduce the problem. Each government must take action to tackle the issue.
"Individual countries must work on the best strategy for them," said Moses. "Each country is different based on unique genetic, social and environmental conditions which is why there is no 'one size fits all' approach that will work."
The researchers said that the global obesity level must be reduced by 25 percent in order to keep diabetes under 10 percent. In the United States, the obesity level would have to drop to 28 percent in order to bring down diabetes rates.
