Obesity Among Children Increased 10 Times In 4 Decades

A new study finds the number of obese children and adolescents have increased by over ten times compared to forty years ago.

In 1975 there 11 million such population while in 2016 it has been increased to 124 million.

Details of the study are published in the Lancet journal and it adds that about 213 million more children and adolescents were overweight last year.

In terms of gender the study found 7.8 percent of boys and about 5.6 percent of girls were obese in 2016.

The countries which contributed mostly to the figure were those within the Pacific Islands like Nauru and Cook Islands. It was found over 30 percent of the youths in such countries aged between 5 and 19 were obese.

United States, some of the Caribbean and Middle East countries including Puerto Rico, Qatar and Kuwait were found to have more than 20 percent of children in the obese category.

According to professor of global environmental health at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, Majid Ezzati, the children of mostly low- and middle-income countries were found to be mostly obese in the past four decades.

He added, “More recently, they have plateaued in higher-income countries, although obesity levels remain unacceptably high.”

It has also been found in several cases child as young as 5 have started gaining weight.