Overweight and Obesity Among Adults

4. RISK FACTORS FOR HEALTH Overweight and obesity among adults

Being overweight, including pre-obesity and obesity, is a Initiative in the United States aims to improve access to major risk factor for various non-communicable diseases healthy foods in underserved areas. Despite these efforts, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and certain the overweight epidemic has not been reversed, cancers. High consumption of calories-dense food and highlighting the issue’s complexity (OECD, 2019[3]). increasingly sedentary lifestyles have contributed to growing global obesity rates. The rate of growth has been highest in early adulthood and has affected all population groups, in particular women and those with lower levels of Definition and comparability education (Afshin et al., 2017[1]). High body mass index (BMI) has been estimated to cause 4.7 million deaths worldwide Overweight is defined as abnormal or excessive (Global Burden of Disease Collaborative Network, 2018[2]) accumulation of fat, which presents a risk to health. Based on measured data, 58% of adults were overweight or The most frequently used measure is body mass index obese in 2017 on average across 23 OECD countries with (BMI), which is a single number that evaluates an comparable data (Figure 4.11). For Chile, Mexico and the individual’s weight in relation to height (weight/ 2 United States this figure exceeds 70%. Conversely, in Japan height , with weight in kilograms and height in and Korea, less than 35% of adults were overweight or obese. metres). Based on WHO classifications, adults over age The remaining 13 OECD countries include self-reported 18 with a BMI greater than or equal to 25 are defined as data, with rates ranging from 42% in Switzerland to 65% in pre-obese, and those with a BMI greater than or equal Iceland. These estimates, though, are less reliable and to 30 as obese. Data come from national sources – in a typically lower than those based on measured data. For both few instances these may differ from data shown in the measured and self-reported data, men are more likely than OECD 2019 report on obesity, which uses data from the women to be overweight. WHO Global Health Observatory, with age- standardised estimates and other methodological The proportion of overweight adults has been gradually differences. Overweight includes both pre-obesity and increasing in most OECD countries since the early 2000s, obesity. BMI measurements are the same for both including in countries where rates are relatively low genders and adults of all ages. Data for BMI can also be (Figure 4.12). In Japan and Korea, this proportion has collected using self-reported estimates of height and increased by 2.1 and 4.2 percentage points, respectively, weight. BMI estimates based on self-reported data are between 2000 and 2017. In countries with relatively high typically lower and less reliable than those based on rates of adults overweight, this figure ranged from measured data. 2.3 percentage points in Canada to 11.9 in Chile. For Figure 4.13, the lowest level of education refers to Adults with a low level of education are more likely to be people with less than a high-school diploma, while the overweight than those with a tertiary education level or highest refers to people with a university or other above in all 27 OECD countries examined (Figure 4.13). The tertiary diploma. difference in the proportion of overweight adults by education level was greatest in Luxembourg, Spain and France, where the gap was greater than 15 percentage points. OECD member countries have implemented a suite of References regulatory and non-regulatory initiatives to reduce [1] Afshin, A. et al. (2017), “Health Effects of Overweight and overweight population rates. Prominent examples include Obesity in 195 Countries over 25 Years.”, The New England mass media campaigns to promote the benefits of healthy Journal of Medicine, http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1614362. eating; promotion of nutritional education and skills; ‘sin’ [2] Global Burden of Disease Collaborative Network (2018), Global taxes on energy-dense food and drink items to discourage Burden of Disease Study 2017 (GBD 2017) Results, Seattle, consumption; food labelling to communicate nutritional United States: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation value; and agreements with the food industry to improve (IHME). the nutritional value of products. Policymakers are also [3] OECD (2019), The Heavy Burden of Obesity: The Economics of exploring initiatives that address the social determinants of Prevention, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/ being overweight. For example, the Healthy Food Financing 10.1787/67450d67-en.

96 HEALTH AT A GLANCE 2019 © OECD 2019 4. RISK FACTORS FOR HEALTH

Overweight and obesity among adults

Figure 4.11. Overweight including obesity among adults by sex, measured and self-reported, 2017 (or nearest year)

Total Men Women OECD36 % of population aged 15 years and over 80 70 60 50 40 74.2 72.5 71.0 67.6 67.6 66.6 65.4 65.2 64.4 30 64.3 62.3 62.0 60.0 59.1 58.2 58.1 55.6 55.0 55.0 54.6 53.3 53.3 53.0 51.5 51.3 51.0 51.0 50.9 49.0 48.2 47.3 46.7 20 46.0 46.0 41.8 33.7

10 25.9 0

Note: Left- and right-hand side estimates utilise measured and self-reported data, respectively. OECD36 average includes both data types. Source: OECD Health Statistics 2019. StatLink 2 https://doi.org/10.1787/888934015467

Figure 4.12. Evolution of overweight including obesity in selected countries, measured, 2000-17 (or nearest year)

United States United Kingdom Korea Japan France Chile Canada % of population aged 15 years and over % of population aged 15 years and over 80 80 70 70 60 60 50 50 40 40 30 30 20 20 10 10 0 0 2000 2005 2010 2015 2000 2005 2010 2015

Note: Linear interpolation was used to impute values where data was missing. Source: OECD Health Statistics 2019. StatLink 2 https://doi.org/10.1787/888934015486

Figure 4.13. Difference in overweight including obesity by education level, self-reported, 2014

Lowest education level Highest education level % of population aged 18 years and over 80 70 60 50

40 59.8 56.2 53.3 48.6 48.5 48.5 48.4 48.3 48.2 48.1 48.0

30 46.6 45.6 44.9 44.5 44.0 43.2 41.0 40.8 40.5 40.0 39.9 39.1 37.7 20 37.3 35.1 35.1 34.9 10 0

Source: EHIS2 and OECD estimates based on national health survey data. StatLink 2 https://doi.org/10.1787/888934015505

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Please cite this chapter as:

OECD (2019), “Overweight and obesity among adults”, in Health at a Glance 2019: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1787/055833f6-en

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