Diabetes Health in the News Podcast: Obesity Increasing Worldwide

May 18, 2016 Nadia Al-Samarrie

A U.K. study has found that there are now more than 640 million people in the world who are considered obese and more people who are overweight than underweight. A dramatic increase in body mass index (BMI) has also been found over the past four decades – for men, it increased from 21.7 to 24.2, and for women, average BMI increased from 22.1 to 24.4.

This trend is showing no signs of stopping. If it continues, 18% of men and 21% of women will qualify as obese by 2025. This study also found that BMI rates were highest in the U.S. and other high-income countries and lowest in Japan.

These findings were published in The Lancet on March 31, 2016.