Obesity: a global concern

A global survey has recently found that abdominal fat is the world’s number one killer, claiming more than 17 million lives each year.

The Shape of the Nations survey was carried out in 72 countries. There were more than 16 476 participants, 400 participants in each country.

It has identified that 100 participants per country were at high risk of heart diseases because of obesity.

According to the survey, 50-80 % of all deaths of people with diabetes are caused by cardiovascular diseases.

The survey also showed that more than 52% of physicians worldwide overestimate the waist size that put their patients at risk.

It also said that this is one of the major causes of death, because patients who are at risk of developing heart disease as a result of obesity, are not identified early enough and fail to get treatment.

More than 52% of people worldwide have been measuring their waist circumference after the alarming findings of the survey.

More than 100 primary care physicians per country have confirmed that their patients were unaware of the danger of abdominal fat.

The countries surveyed were:

• Austria
• Australia
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Canada
• China
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• India
• Italy
• Japan
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Russia
• South Africa
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Turkey
• Uk
• USA

In North America, 49% of all the patients who visit primary care physicians are overweight or obese, and 39% worldwide.

(Edgar do Nascimento, Health24, September 2005)