Public release date: 22-Oct-2007
DALLAS, Oct. 23 – A new global study revealed that 40 percent of men and 30 percent of women are overweight, while 24 percent of men and 27 percent of women are obese, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
In the study, 168,159 people (69,409 men, 98,750 women) from 18 to 80 years old (average age 48) in 63 countries across five continents were evaluated by their primary care physicians
“This is the largest study to assess the frequency of adiposity (body fat) in the clinic, providing a snapshot of patients worldwide,” said study lead author Beverley Balkau, Ph.D., director of research at INSERM in Villejuif, France. (INSERM is the French equivalent of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.)
“The study results show that excess body weight is pandemic, with one-half to two-thirds of the overall study population being overweight or obese,” Balkau said. “Central adiposity adds significantly to the risk of developing heart disease and particularly of developing diabetes.”
Being overweight or obese has health consequences, but abdominal obesity has even worse consequences, she added. As measured by WC using International Diabetes Federation Caucasian criteria, more than half the study population – 56 percent of men and 71 percent of women – had abdominal adiposity (WC ¡Ý 37 inches (94 cm) in men and ¡Ý 31.5 inches (80 cm) in women).
***Ralph’s Note- The population of the globe, will decrease if this event move’s forward.