If you were to list the four significant diseases in the countries of the world, you might answer cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. Some might prefer to call obesity a condition rather than a disease and not include it in the list but I will take such a liberty. Because obesity is the root cause of much cardiovascular disease and diabetes, one could also be justified in dropping these latter two diseases from the list, leaving cancer and obesity. Whereas we are making great strides in reducing the incidence of cancer however (see: Cancer Statistics Report: Deaths Down 20% in 2 Decades), it turns out that no nation has lowered its obesity rate in 33 years (see: No Nation Has Lowered Obesity Rate in 33 Years). Here's an excerpt from it:
Nearly 30 percent of the world’s population is overweight or obese, and not one country has reduced its obesity rate in 33 years, according to a new study combining three decades of data from 188 countries, published in The Lancet...(see: Global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adults during 1980—2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013). Though there are patterns, obesity is not evenly distributed by region, by ethnic group or by national income levels. It is more common among women than men, especially in poor countries. Although 13 percent of the world’s obese people live in the United States, the world’s richest country, 62 percent live in poor or middle-income countries. Countries with the highest rates included Tonga, Samoa and Kiribati in the South Pacific and Kuwait, Libya and Qatar in the Middle East. Citizens of many Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, gained the most weight over the last 30 years. By contrast, almost all of Asia remained thin. The two Koreas, vastly different in wealth, are both low, though South Koreans are somewhat fatter.Countries near each other may differ greatly. Few Tunisians are obese, while many Libyans are. Bhutan’s obesity rates are five times as high as Nepal’s.The widest fluctuations were in Africa. Island nations like Mauritius and the Seychelles had obesity rates nearly 10 times those of Ethiopia and Burundi, for example. Relatively prosperous South Africa had the highest female obesity rates, but obesity was also surprisingly high in a few poor nations like South Sudan and Equatorial Guinea.
I was surprised by many of these statistics in this article such as the fact that "obesity was also surprisingly high in a few poor nations like South Sudan and Equatorial Guinea." Also remarkable was the fact that Tunisians are obese whereas many Libyans are not. I have blogged previously about the very high obesity rate in the Middle East (see: Diabetes Epidemic Hits the Middle East Hardest). All of this, for me, underscores the interplay between race, ethnicity, and culture on obesity and Type 2 diabetes (see: Influence of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture on Childhood Obesity: Implications for Prevention and Treatment).
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