A study involving researchers from Coimbra revealed that more than a billion people suffer from obesity

In the world there will be 33, suggests A An international study involving Cristina Badez, Aristides Machado Rodriguez and Daniela Rodriguez (pictured left to right), researchers at the Anthropology and Health Research Center at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra.

According to this research, published in The Lancet, these trends, combined with a decline in the prevalence of underweight since 1990, make obesity the most common form of malnutrition in most countries.

According to the co-authors, analysis of global data estimates that the global obesity rate among children and adolescents in 2022 was four times higher than the rate in 1990. In total, 159 million children and adolescents and 879 million adults were obese. In 2022.

“In Portugal – they say – in 2022, the prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents is 6% in girls and 9% in boys,” they say. Among adults, the obesity rate has more than doubled in women and nearly tripled in men.

The researchers also state that “between 1990 and 2022, the proportion of children and adolescents in the world affected by underweight fell by about a fifth for girls and more than a third for boys.” In Portugal, the underweight/underweight rate was 1% among girls and 3% among boys in 2022. The proportion of adults worldwide affected by underweight fell by more than half over the same period. In Portugal, in the same year, the values ​​were 2% for women and men.

As the Coimbra researchers explain, “Obesity and underweight are two forms of malnutrition that harm people's health in many ways. This latest study provides a very detailed picture of global trends in both forms of malnutrition over the past 33 years.”

“It is deeply disturbing that the obesity epidemic, which was evident among adults in most parts of the world in 1990, is now being reflected in school-age children and adolescents. At the same time, hundreds of millions of people continue to suffer from malnutrition, especially in some of the poorest regions.” “In order to successfully combat both forms of malnutrition, it is necessary to significantly improve the availability and affordability of healthy, nutritious foods,” warns Professor Majid Ezzati, from Imperial College London, lead author of this article.

More than 1,500 researchers contributed to this study, who analyzed weight and height measurements for more than 220 million people aged five or older (63 million people aged 5 to 19 years and 158 million people aged 20 years or older), representing more From 190 countries. Researchers looked at body mass index (BMI) to understand how obesity and underweight will change around the world between 1990 and 2022.

This new study was conducted by the Noncommunicable Disease Risk Factors Collaboration (NCD-RisC), in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition to researchers from the Faculty of Science and Technology, Annabella Mota Pinto, Luisa Maviera and Lilita Santos from the Faculty of Medicine and Coimbra Hospital Center also participated.