Abstract
Obesity is now the most prevalent form of malnutrition in the industrialized countries and is rapidly becoming highly prevalent also in developing world. Obesity is considered now as a major contributor to the global burden of disease and disability. Overweight and obesity are defined as an abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health, and can be measured with the use of the Body Mass Index (BMI). Ethnic-specific BMI cut-off points for overweight and obesity have been proposed. According to WHO database, 34.5 % of the world adults were overweight and 11 % were obese in 2008. The prevalence is higher in women than in men and varies greatly across the WHO Regions. Alarming prevalence of obesity has been observed also in children and adolescents in several countries worldwide. The prevalence of obesity has increased dramatically in the last decades in both adults and children, with evidence of possible recent stabilization in some industrialized countries. Nevertheless, the prevalence rates continue to be greater than one third of the population and the obesity epidemic is still escalating in the developing world. The problem of overweight and obesity has therefore emerged as one of the most pressing global issues that we will continue to face during the next several decades.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Peeters A, Backholer K. Is the health burden associated with obesity changing? Am J Epidemiol. 2012;176:840–5.
Olshansky SJ, Passaro DJ, Hershow RC, et al. A potential decline in life expectancy in the United States in the 21st century. N Engl J Med. 2005;352:1138–45.
WHO. Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic. Report of a WHO consultation. World Health Organ Tech Rep Ser. 2000;894:1–253.
Müller MJ, Lagerpusch M, Enderle J, et al. Beyond the body mass index: tracking body composition in the pathogenesis of obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Obes Rev. 2012;13:6–13.
Okorodudu DO, Jumean MF, Montori VM, et al. Diagnostic performance of body mass index to identify obesity as defined by body adiposity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Obes (Lond). 2010;34:791–9.
Thomas EL, Frost G, Taylor-Robinson SD, Bell JD. Excess body fat in obese and normal-weight subjects. Nutr Res Rev. 2012;25:150–61.
Karastergiou K, Smith SR, Greenberg A. Sex differences in human adipose tissues – the biology of pear shape. Biol Sex Differ. 2012;3:13.
WHO. Appropriate body-mass index for Asian populations and its implications for policy and intervention strategies. Lancet. 2004;363:157–63.
World Health Organization. Obesity. 2008. [Accessed 7 Apr 2014]. Available at: http://www.who.int/topics/obesity/en/.
Ogden CL, Carroll BK, Flegal KM. Prevalence of obesity among adults: United States, 2011-2012. NCHS Data Brief. 2013;131:1–8.
Progetto Cuore. Istituto Superiore di Sanità . 2014. [Accessed 7 Apr 2014]. Available at: http://www.cuore.iss.it/eng/.
Wang Y. Cross-national comparison of childhood obesity: the epidemic and the relationship between obesity and socioeconomic status. Int J Epidemiol. 2001;30:1129–36.
Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Kit BK, Flegal KM. Prevalence of childhood and adult obesity in the United States, 2011-2012. JAMA. 2014;311:806–14.
Okkio alla Salute. Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca. 2014. [Accessed 7 Apr 2014]. Available at: http://www.okkioallasalute.iss.it/.
Weiss R, Dziura J, Burgert TS, et al. Obesity and the metabolic syndrome in children and adolescents. N Engl J Med. 2004;350:2362–74.
Han JC, Lawlor DA, Kimm SYS. Childhood obesity. Lancet. 2010;375:1737–48.
Sturm R. Increases in clinically severe obesity in the United States, 1986-2000. Arch Intern Med. 2003;163:2146–8.
Finucane MM, Stevens GA, Cowan MJ, et al. National, regional, and global trends in body-mass index since 1980: systematic analysis of health examination surveys and epidemiological studies with 960 country-years and 9.1 million participants. Lancet. 2011;377:557–67.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Busetto, L., Maggi, S. (2015). Incidence and Prevalence of Obesity. In: Lucchese, M., Scopinaro, N. (eds) Minimally Invasive Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15356-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15356-8_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15355-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15356-8
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)