The number of obese children and adolescents aged five to 19 years worldwide has risen tenfold in the past four decades. And if current trends continue, more children and adolescents will be obese than moderately or severely underweight by 2022, says a study led by the Imperial College London and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The study, published in The Lancet, analysed weight and height measurements from nearly 130 million people aged over five years making it the largest ever number of participants involved in an epidemiological study. More than 1,000 contributors participated in the study, which looked at body mass index (BMI) and how obesity has changed worldwide from 1975 to 2016.

Obesity rates in the world’s children and adolescents increased from less than 1 per cent (equivalent to five million girls and six million boys) in 1975 to nearly 6 per cent in girls (50 million) and nearly 8 per cent in boys (74 million) in 2016.

Combined, the number of obese five-to-19-year-olds rose, from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016.

Lead author Professor Majid Ezzati, with the Imperial’s School of Public Health, says that obesity in children and adolescents has soared globally in 40 years, continuing to do so in low- and middle-income countries, while plateauing recently (though still high) in higher-income countries.

Professor Ezzati adds: “These worrying trends reflect the impact of food marketing and policies across the globe, with healthy nutritious foods too expensive for poor families and communities. The trend predicts a generation of children and adolescents growing up obese and at greater risk of diseases, like diabetes. We need ways to make healthy, nutritious food more available at home and school, especially in poor families and communities, and regulations and taxes to protect children from unhealthy foods.”

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