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Obesity an epidemic in developing countries'

24 April 2013 | News | By BioSpectrum Bureau

Childhood obesity mainly associates with junk eating habits, say experts

Childhood obesity mainly associates with junk eating habits, say experts

Singapore: Out of 2.1 billion obese population in the world, 15 percent are the Indians and Chinese, reveals a study conducted by the Global Burden of Disease published in Lancet medical journal. Alarming rates of childhood obesity were observed in developing countries with 24 percent of boys and more than 22 percent of girls being overweight or obese.

In developed countries, obesity increased sharply between 1992 and 2002, but slowed down after 2006; in developing countries, obesity will continue to increase, illustrated the study. China has 62 million obese population which accounted to 9 percent of the total obese people in the world. This places China in the second position in the world preceded by the United States.

"Obesity is a distressing issue affecting people of all ages and incomes. It needs urgent attention as it can transform into a public health crisis, soon," said Mr Christopher Murray, director of Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IMHE), in a press release.

Particularly, childhood obesity in China needs attention, said Dr Marie Ng assistant professor of global health at IHME. She coined that the proportion of obese boys in China were almost double the proportion of obese men. The downstream health effects from childhood obesity are many including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and many cancers.

Obesity has become a widespread epidemic in the globe and the trend must be reversed in order to prevent the world from entering into a health crisis, worry experts.

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