Epidemiology Of Obesity And Overweight: A Global Epidemic

Epidemiology

Discuss About The Epidemiology Of Obesity And Overweight Global Epidemic.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the epidemiology of Obesity and Overweight (O&O) which has become a global epidemic. The paper will first discuss the global epidemiology, and then focus specifically on the O&O in Australia. management, an-depth analysis of the prevalence of O&O would be provided which will look at the prevalence in both sexes and across ages. Lastly, the paper will analyze the O&O burden of disease in Australia, and its contribution to the burden of other diseases.

The recent Global Burden of Disease (GBD) analysis reported that the global status of O&O is deteriorating  in different nations.(1) The study assembled data from 195 countries and analyzed O&O in relation to its associated morbidity as well as mortality. This study found O&O prevalence is going past the double results of the last analysis of 1980 which revealed the prevalence as 5% in children and 12% in adults.(1) According to the World Heald Organization, the cases of O&O have tripled since 1975.(2) The analysis reports that the number of O&O adults was exceeding the 1.9 billion (above 8 years) calculated in 2016. There were 41 million children aged below 5 years who were overweight or obese, and those aged between 5-19 were over 340 million.

The 2011–2014 US survey presented the prevalence of obese as (40.2%) in adults between 40 to 59, (37.0%) in adults aged 60 and above, (32.3%) in younger adults between 20 to 39, (17.0%) youths, (20.5%) adolescents between 12 to19 years, (17.5%) children between 6 to11 years, and (8.9%) children between 2 to 5 years.(3) Globally, the uppermost prevalence of world’s obesity was seen in Pacific Islands while the low rates were found in Asia.(4) The prevalence in North American and Europe countries is largely high while both the Middle East and Africa showed varying rates.(4)

Obesity develops as a result of an imbalance between energy usage and its intake.(5) The imbalance leads to accumulation of fats leading to several health problems. Excess body fat causes a risk of heart disease, gallbladder, liver disease, diabetes, cancer and arthritis among others.(5) Obesity is believed to be mainly caused by high intake of energy rich foods with decreased physical activities. Other causes may include hypothalamic, genetic disorders and of endocrine.(6) People are regarded as obese if their body weight pass 20% of the ideal weight. The body mass index (BMI) is the standard criteria for measuring cases of overweight and underweight.(5) The standard level is capped at 25 kg/m2 while being obese is any BMI past 30 kg/m2.(5)

Prevalence of overweight and obesity in Australia

Australian defines obesity as a body mass index (BMI) starting from 30 kg/m2 and above (7). A detailed conclusion has never been available due to lack of comparability in the survey methodologies which has also causes difficulties among researchers in coming up perfect summaries on the O&O prevalence in Australia.(8) The state of Australia has not yet got a systematic population health monitoring that can cover all ages and localities(8). In connection with this, there has been a confusion of the understanding of the O&O health challenges.

The most recent report demonstrating the status of Australia on the prevalence of obesity is the National Health Survey conducted in 2015 (7). This survey shows that there were 63% Australian adults who were living with O&O, and about a half (28%) of this number were obese. (7) This report also showed that the number of obese men was greater than that of women. Looking at the data per state, the study showed a slight difference among states. For instance, Tasmania recorded the highest number of O&O 32.3% and those who were obese were 67.5%.(7) The Northern Sydney recorded the lowest number of O&O 53.4%. Neither sex had an obesity prevalence that was consistently higher than the other across the age groups. The recording for the prevalence of O&O in children showed that a total of 27% of children in Australian aged 5-17 years were O&O. Among these, 7% were obese. Also, this prevalence seemed to vary across different states.

A summary report on obesity in Australia showed that the disadvantaged groups are at the highest risk of obesity.(9) The report showed that the prevalence of obesity in women living in most disadvantage areas were (63.8%) compared (47.7%) for those least disadvantaged.(9) The number of men reflected the same trend as 69.0% and 68.6% respectively.(9) Going by this report, the levels of O&O were increasing estimated to reach 83% in men and 75% by 2025. This number would be equivalent to 16.9 million Australians. The report also showed that lower socio economics groups are now the most likely to affected than the well up group.(9)

The same trend is also reflected in the latest Australian survey.(7) Children and adolescents  within remote areas were seen likely to be O&O than those within major cities.(7)  The Australian National survey showed the same trend. For instance, the report showed that 33% of the boys within the lowest socioeconomic groups were O&O while those at the socioeconomic group were 22%. For girls, the data reflected the same trend as 38% and 24% respectively.(7)

Population at Risk

The study of Thuber et al (10) also found a substantial relationship between excess prevalence of obesity and sociodemographic factors which this study associated with difference in physical activities, screen times, remoteness, education, and area-level disadvantage. This study suggest a target on socioeconomic and health behavior factors to promote healthy BMI.(10) While the study of Zufikar et al (11) argues that there could be other contributor except socioeconomic factors, this study still found that O&O prevalence increased consistently with the ages of the participants in  low?and?middle?income countries.

In Australia, the 2015 study recorded fatal burden estimates to be 17 disease groups and about 200 detailed diseases and injuries.(12). Out of these, the O&O poses a 7% disease burden, and 63% of this is the fatal cases.(7)  An extension of the 2015 study showed that 7.3% men recorded a greater burden of disease in O&O than the women 6.6% recorded for women.(13) The report stated that the higher burden in men than women can be due to higher prevalence of O&O reported in men than on women. (13)

Despite O&O burden being at 7%, O&O is also attributed to the burden on other diseases. For instance, the national survey (7) reports that 53% of the cases of diabetes were caused by O&O. The same cases were reflected on the osteoarthritis as O&O being attributed to the 45% of osteoarthritis cases. From the past studies and statistics, it is possible to make an inference that the burden of most of the chronic diseases has something to do with O&O. Taking diabetes as an example, some studies have proved that an early occurrence of obesity has higher chances of causing the development of incidences of type 1 and 2 diabetes due to increased weight and body mass.(14) Similarly, O&O has been found to be a major contributor to the  rising incidences hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.(15) O&O has also been found to be a major risk factor for chronic kidney diseases.(7,16).  In overall, the Australian National Survey(7) reports that O&O is attributed to about 38% of the cardiovascular burden of diseases. In this group, there were 27% cases of coronary heart disease, 10% cases of stroke, 17% cases of diabetes 12% cases of osteoarthritis, and 5% cases of chronic kidney diseases. The great number of these diseases was linked to O&O.  

Conclusion

The aim of this paper was to analyze the issue of obesity and overweight epidemiology. The paper found that O&O is a global issue that has affected all states. Studies across different states have shown that there is a higher prevalence of O&O and this number is also increasing. In Australia, the prevalence of O&O is distributed across different ages and sexes.  These studies highlight that males have a higher prevalence than men. The paper recommends that states should come up with practical policies and interventions aimed at combating the increasing number of cases of O&O. As the highest risk factor is high energy intake with less physical activities, government should come up with strategies that would aim at increasing physical activities across all ages. For example, public health and social care programmes can encourage to minimize transportation of children to school where there are short distances between home and schools. Adults can also get accustomed to walking or riding to their work places instead of always using vehicles for transport.  

Burden Imposed

References

GBD 2015 Obesity Collaborators. Health Effects of Overweight and Obesity in 195 Countries over 25 Years. N Engl J Med [Internet]. 2017 Jun 12 [cited 2018 May 19]; Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5477817/

World Health Organization. Obesity and overweight [Internet]. World Health Organization. 2017 [cited 2018 May 19]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight

Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Fryar CD, Flegal KM. Prevalence of obesity among adults and youth: United States, 2011-2014. US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Healthcare Statistics; 2015.

Dillinger J. The Most Obese Countries In The World [Internet]. WorldAtlas. 2018 [cited 2018 May 20]. Available from: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/29-most-obese-countries-in-the-world.html

Pi-Sunyer X. The Medical Risks of Obesity. Postgrad Med. 2009 Nov;121(6):21–33.

Lloyd RV. Endocrine Pathology:: Differential Diagnosis and Molecular Advances. 2nd ed. Springer New York; 2010. (SpringerLink?: Bücher).

Australian Bureau of Statistics. National Health Survey?: first results, Australia 2014-15 [Internet]. [Canberra, A.CT.]?: Australian Bureau of Statistics; 2015 [cited 2018 May 20]. Available from: https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/226307518

Huse O, Hettiarachchi J, Gearon E, Nichols M, Allender S, Peeters A. Obesity in Australia. Obesity Research & Clinical Practice. 2018 Jan;12(1):29–39.

VicHealth. Disadvantaged Australians most at risk of obesity [Internet]. 2014 [cited 2018 May 21]. Available from: https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/media-and-resources/media-releases/disadvantaged-australians-most-at-risk-of-obesity

Thurber KA, Joshy G, Korda R, Eades SJ, Wade V, Bambrick H, et al. Obesity and its association with sociodemographic factors, health behaviours and health status among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal adults in New South Wales, Australia. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2018 Mar 7;jech-2017-210064.

Zulfiqar T, Strazdins L, Banwell C, Dinh H, D’Este C. Growing up in Australia: paradox of overweight/obesity in children of immigrants from low-and-middle -income countries. Obesity Science & Practice. 2018 Apr 1;4(2):178–87.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australian Burden of Disease Study 2015: fatal burden preliminary estimates , Summary [Internet]. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [cited 2018 May 21]. Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/burden-of-disease/fatal-burden-2015-preliminary-estimates/contents/summary

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Impact of overweight and obesity as a risk factor for chronic conditions, Table of contents [Internet]. 2017 [cited 2018 May 21]. Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/burden-of-disease/impact-of-overweight-and-obesity-as-a-risk-factor-for-chronic-conditions/contents/table-of-contents

Al-Goblan AS, Al-Alfi MA, Khan MZ. Mechanism linking diabetes mellitus and obesity. Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes. Economics 4;7:587–91.

Livingstone KM, McNaughton SA. Dietary patterns by reduced rank regression are associated with obesity and hypertension in Australian adults. British Journal of Nutrition. 2017 Jan;117(2):248–59.

Chung H-F, Al Mamun A, Huang M-C, Long KZ, Huang Y-F, Shin S-J, et al. Obesity, weight change, and chronic kidney disease in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: A longitudinal study in Taiwan. J Diabetes. 2017 Nov;9(11):983–93.