Despite various advances in technology the modern society has made to ensure comfort and security, other challenges are rapidly emerging to replace the solved ones. One problem, in particular, affecting the western world and other parts of the globe is obesity. Obesity is defined as a state of being overweight. The condition is becoming a major concern in the United Kingdom; but how does this compare to the rest of the developed world?
In England alone, 24.8% of adults are considered obese with a shocking 61.7% being overweight or obese. In the entire UK, 67% of men and 57% of women are overweight (NHS Choices, 2015). According to these statistics, obesity levels at the moment are at least three times what they were in 1980. Research indicates that overweight children are highly likely to become obese as adults. Furthermore, obesity in a parent has been linked to influence obesity by 10% among their children (NHS Choices, 2015). An estimated 17% of children between 2 and 15 years are obese with an addition of 14% being overweight. Projections show that if the trend continues a third of the UK population will be obese by 2020 (NHS Choices, 2015). Thus, the United Kingdom is facing the most significant weight problem in history.
In Western Europe, UK is the third most obese country after Iceland and Malta. Germany has a prevalence of 14.7% while Italy has 10.3%. Collectively in Europe, a shocking 54% of adults were overweight or obese according to WHO data. While men were more likely to be overweight than women, women appeared to be more corpulent than men (Ng et al., 2014). In America, 36% of their population was obese with some states beings relatively more obese than others. Moreover, 30% children under of 20 years struggle with obesity in the US compared to 19% in the 1980s. According to the World Health Organization, Europe comes in second after America in obesity levels (Cohen, 2016). Across the developed world, 24% of boys were overweight or obese compared to 23% of girls (Ng et al., 2014). Research shows that England has the fastest obesity growth in the world. However, American children are twice as likely to be overweight when compared with European children. Though America is leading in obesity, the UK and the US both show troubling figures when equated with countries like Japan and Korean which have 3.5% and 4.1% obesity prevalence respectively (Ng et al., 2014). The difference in the numbers is ineligible. Generally, in the world, more people are becoming obese but at a slower rate than the US, the UK and the rest of the developed countries.
The consequences of this epidemic are unsettling. In the UK, it is estimated that 30,000 individuals die annually from obesity related complication 9,000, of which die before they retire (NHS Choices, 2015). This trend if sustained will accrue up to 668, 000 additional diabetes mellitus cases, 461,000 heart disease and stroke cases and 130,000 cancer cases. In America, obesity sits after tobacco as the second leading cause of prevalent deaths as it is responsible for a yearly toll of 300,000 deaths (WVDHHR, 2017). Therefore, the consequence of the rampant obesity is the rising number of fatalities.
In conclusion, while living in the safest possible time in human history, obesity threatens peoples’ health and countries’ economies. The UK is facing the highest levels of obesity and overweight cases now than ever, in the country’s history. The country is among the top 5 fattest countries in Europe. When compared with the US, the country is relatively doing better at managing its weight. UK and America both have alarming weight issues compared to the rest of the world.
References
Cohen, S. (2016). Obesity in the U.S. and Europe on the Rise: A Comparison. Huffington post, [online] . Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-cohen/obesity-in-the-us-and-eur_b_9845182.html [Accessed 12 Jul. 2017].
Ng, M., Fleming, T., Robinson, M., Thompson, B. Graetz, N., Margono, C. Mullany, E. (2014). 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. The Lancet, [online] 384(9945), p.766-781. Available at: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60460-8/abstract [Accessed 12 Jul. 2017].
NHS Choices, (2015). The fat man of Europe. [online] Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/loseweight/pages/statistics-and-causes-of-the-obesity-epidemic-in-the-uk.aspx [Accessed 11 Jul. 2017].
NHS Choices, (2016). Obesity. [online] Available at :http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Obesity/Pages/Introduction.aspx [Accessed 11 Jul. 2017].
WVDHHR, (2017). Obesity: Facts, Figures, Guidelines. [online] Available at : https://www.wvdhhr.org/bph/oehp/obesity/mortality.htm [Accessed 11 Jul. 2017].
