• Clinical Medical College of Southwest Jiaotong University; Department of General Surgery-Center for Obesity and Metabolic Diseases, Chengdu Third People’s Hospital, Chengdu 610031, P. R. China;
WANG Bing, Email: wangbing@swjtu.edu.cn
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Objective To review the current epidemiological status and trends of overweight and obesity globally and in China, and to analyze its hazards, causes, and prevention strategies. Methods Recent global and Chinese studies and reports on obesity epidemiology were retrieved. Data from the latest World Obesity Federation’s reports and authoritative national statistics were comprehensively analyzed. Results The prevalence of overweight and obesity was rising worldwide. About 43% of adults were overweight and 16% of adults were obese globally. There were an estimated 2.5 billion adults with overweight (BMI ≥25 kg/m2), including 0.89 billion with obesity (BMI≥30 kg/m2). The overweight rate in youth aged 5–19 increased from 8% in 1990 to 20% in 2022. In China, over half of adults were overweight or obese, totaling over 402 million and ranking first in the world; the overweight/obesity rate in children and adolescents approached 20%. Gaps between urban and rural obesity had narrowed in China, and males and northern regions had higher rates than females and southern regions. Obesity greatly increased the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and other chronic diseases. Conclusions Both globally and in China, obesity has become a serious epidemic challenge. Strengthened prevention and control strategies are urgently needed, including comprehensive treatment based on healthy lifestyle intervention, drugs, endoscopy, weight loss surgery, etc, adoption of new weight management therapies and supportive policies are also needed. Special attention should be paid to preventing childhood obesity to curb the rising trend and reduce the associated health burden.

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