Burden of obesity in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: findings from the Global Burden of Disease 2015 study
Author(s)
El Bcheraoui, C
Rawaf, S
Mokdad, AH
GBD 2015 Eastern Mediterranean Region Obesity Collaborators
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Objectives
We used the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2015 study results to explore the burden of high body mass index (BMI) in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR).
Methods
We estimated the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children (2–19 years) and adults (≥20 years) in 1980 and 2015. The burden of disease related to high BMI was calculated using the GBD comparative risk assessment approach.
Results
The prevalence of obesity increased for adults from 15.1% (95% UI 13.4–16.9) in 1980 to 20.7% (95% UI 18.8–22.8) in 2015. It increased from 4.1% (95% UI 2.9–5.5) to 4.9% (95% UI 3.6–6.4) for the same period among children. In 2015, there were 417,115 deaths and 14,448,548 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributable to high BMI in EMR, which constitute about 10 and 6.3% of total deaths and DALYs, respectively, for all ages.
Conclusions
This is the first study to estimate trends in obesity burden for the EMR from 1980 to 2015. We call for EMR countries to invest more resources in prevention and health promotion efforts to reduce this burden.
We used the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2015 study results to explore the burden of high body mass index (BMI) in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR).
Methods
We estimated the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children (2–19 years) and adults (≥20 years) in 1980 and 2015. The burden of disease related to high BMI was calculated using the GBD comparative risk assessment approach.
Results
The prevalence of obesity increased for adults from 15.1% (95% UI 13.4–16.9) in 1980 to 20.7% (95% UI 18.8–22.8) in 2015. It increased from 4.1% (95% UI 2.9–5.5) to 4.9% (95% UI 3.6–6.4) for the same period among children. In 2015, there were 417,115 deaths and 14,448,548 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributable to high BMI in EMR, which constitute about 10 and 6.3% of total deaths and DALYs, respectively, for all ages.
Conclusions
This is the first study to estimate trends in obesity burden for the EMR from 1980 to 2015. We call for EMR countries to invest more resources in prevention and health promotion efforts to reduce this burden.
Date Issued
2018-05-01
Date Acceptance
2017-06-02
Citation
International Journal of Public Health, 2018, 63 (Suppl. 1), pp.165-176
ISSN
1661-8564
Publisher
Springer Verlag (Germany)
Start Page
165
End Page
176
Journal / Book Title
International Journal of Public Health
Volume
63
Issue
Suppl. 1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2017. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Subjects
1117 Public Health And Health Services
Public Health
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2017-08-03