Shropshire Star

There are now 124 million obese children around the world, figures show

Despite the trend, research shows more children are severely underweight than overweight.

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(Taborsk/Getty Images)

Rates of obesity among children and teenagers have soared 10-fold around the world in the past four decades, a global study has shown.

Between 1975 and 2016 the estimated number of obese boys in the world increased from six million to 74 million.

Girls showed a similar trend, with the figure rising from five million to 50 million over the same period.

Much of the increase in recent years has taken place in developing countries while obesity rates among young people in Europe and the US were said to have plateaued.

Childhood obesity
Obesity figures have increased 10-fold around the world (Gareth Fuller/PA)

“Rates of child and adolescent obesity are accelerating in east, south and south-east Asia, and continue to increase in other low and middle-income regions.”

Despite the trend, more children around the world are severely underweight than overweight, the research showed.

Overall, the global prevalence of child and adolescent obesity had increased from 0.7% to 5.6% for girls, and from 0.9% to 7.8% for boys.

Latest childhood obesity rates were highest in some Polynesian islands, where they exceeded 30%.

A fifth of children and teenagers in the US and a tenth of those in the UK were obese.

In total, 124 million children and adolescents around the world had a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, categorising them as obese.

Obese child.
A tenth of children and teenagers in the UK have been found to be obese (Kwanchaichaiudom/Getty Images)

The researchers pooled 2,416 studies looking at BMI and obesity to analyse data on 128.9 million participants around the world, including 31.5 million children and teenagers aged five to 19.

The results appear in The Lancet medical journal to mark World Obesity Day.

Professor Majid Ezzati, a member of the team from Imperial College London, said: “While there have been some initiatives led by governments, communities or schools to increase awareness about childhood and adolescent obesity, most high-income countries have been reluctant to use taxes and industry regulations to change eating and drinking behaviours to tackle child obesity.

“Most importantly, very few policies and programmes attempt to make healthy foods such as whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables affordable to poor families.

“Unaffordability of healthy food options to the poor can lead to social inequalities in obesity and limit how much we can reduce its burden.”

General Election 2017
Experts say unhealthy food could be contributing to obesity (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

The research also showed that around the world 75 million girls and 117 million boys were moderately or severely underweight in 2016.

Almost two-thirds of underweight children lived in southern Asia.

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