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2011-02-04 10:20:49
One in 10 of the world's adults is obese, according to a joint UK-US study
published in The Lancet
Imperial College London and Harvard researchers studied body mass index (BMI),
cholesterol and high blood pressure data from 1980 to 2008.
High blood pressure and cholesterol fell in many developed countries while
obesity generally rose worldwide.
Men in the UK have the sixth highest BMI in Europe while UK women have the
ninth highest BMI in Europe.
Obesity, cholesterol and high blood pressure are all risk factors for heart
disease.
In 2008, 9.8% of men and 13.8% of women in the world were obese - they had a
BMI above 30kg/m2.
This is compared with 4.8% for men and 7.9% for women in 1980.
What is BMI - Body Mass Index?
BMI is measured by taking a person's weight in kg and dividing by the square of
their height in metres.
A BMI of 18.5 to 25 is considered healthy, over 25 is deemed overweight and
greater than 30 is obese.
Pacific island nations had the highest average BMI in the word at 34-35kg/m2.
This was up to 70% higher than some countries in south-east Asia and
sub-Saharan Africa.
In common with the rest of the world, BMI rose among most high-income
countries.
Among those countries, BMI rose the most in the USA between 1980 and 2008,
followed by New Zealand and Australia for women and the UK and Australia for
men.
Continue reading the main story
Western countries bucking the BMI trend
Some countries in Western Europe succeeded in stabilising their BMI levels.
There was virtually no rise in women's BMI in Belgium, Finland, France, Italy
and Switzerland. Italy and Switzerland also saw the smallest increases in male
BMI across the period.
However, while obesity rates in many countries across the world increased, many
higher income countries succeeded in reducing both high blood pressure and
cholesterol.
Large reductions in high blood pressure were seen, for example, in women in
Australasia and men in North America.
Overall, the percentage of people in the world with high blood pressure fell
slightly.
However, for UK adults, blood pressure fell by less that most other European
high-income countries.
Blood pressure levels were highest in the Baltic and East and West African
countries. Systolic blood pressure levels reached 135 mmHg for women and 138
mmHg for men in those areas.
UK BMI, Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Levels, 1980 - 2008
heart is pumping blood around. It is measured in millimetres of mercury.
in 2008.
in 2008
Average levels of total blood cholesterol fell across many Western countries
including North America, Australasia and Europe.
In the UK men and women both showed one of the largest drops in cholesterol in
high income countries. However the UK's cholesterol is still ninth highest in
the world.
Conversely, blood cholesterol levels increased in the East, south-east Asia and
the Pacific region.
Professor Majid Ezzati, a lead author of the study welcomed the improved
results in high blood pressure and cholesterol in higher income countries,
saying: "It's heartening that many countries have successfully reduced blood
pressure and cholesterol despite rising BMI.
"Improved screening and treatment probably helped to lower these risk factors
in high-income countries, as did using less salt and healthier, unsaturated
fats."
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) said the increasing obesity rates were
"striking."
However their associate medical director, Dr Mike Knapton welcomed the progress
in high blood pressure and cholesterol saying; "It's not all bad news.
"We've seen marked progress in reducing blood pressure and cholesterol across
the developed world, proving lifestyle and medical interventions can work."
How obesity is reshaping our world
By Stephen Robb BBC News
Ambulances are the latest vehicles to face up to one inarguable fact - as a
nation, we are getting bigger and that poses a huge design headache.
You can't move nowadays for warnings about rising obesity levels - as a result
of which, ironically, the advice suggests we need to be moving more and eating
less.
As experts continue to warn of increased health risks including heart disease,
diabetes and some cancers, the world around us is having to change shape to
accommodate our changing shapes.
It emerged this week that ambulance services across the country are having to
revamp their fleets to cope with heavier patients.
'We're changing in many ways'
"Generally the population is changing, and it's not just that people are
getting bigger and fatter - they are also getting older. Society is much less
homogenous, it's much more multicultural.
"Instead of designing for an average type, designers are trying to design for a
much greater range of ability and much greater range of height, weight,
strength, intelligence - they are trying to cover a spectrum.
"I think everyone benefits from a bigger stretcher quite honestly - even if
you're not heavy and big it's quite useful to have access to it because it's
more comfortable."
Jeremy Myerson, Royal College of Art
"A few years ago, probably only 10 years ago, your average patient was 12 to 13
stone - now that's probably 17 to 18 stone. And we quite regularly see patients
around 30 stone in weight and even bigger than that," says Nigel Wells of West
Midlands Ambulance Service.
The specialist equipment being stocked includes heavy-duty wheelchairs and
stretchers, inflatable cushions for lifting patients, while ambulance
tail-lifts are being reinforced.
Many services are also buying specialist "bariatric" ambulances, at a cost of
up to 90,000 each, equipped with double-width trolley stretchers and capable
of carrying patients weighing up to 50 stone.
Many hospitals have had to take similar steps, investing in stronger beds and
chairs, wider body scanners, and longer surgical instruments for use on obese
patients. One NHS board in Scotland has spent more than 20,000 on three beds
that can support people weighing up to 78 stone.
And there are other examples of the way our environment is adapting to handle a
growing load.
Airlines
Just as the US has infamously led the way in the world in terms of obesity, its
airlines have pioneered tough policies toward bulky passengers.
Kevin Smith Big mistake: Southwest Airlines incurred the wrath of popular
film-maker Kevin Smith
Several US airlines charge passengers for a second seat if they cannot fit into
one.
This has been a longstanding policy at Southwest Airlines, which imposes the
charge if a passenger cannot comfortably lower the armrests on their seat.
The airline generated headlines last year when it barred from a flight American
film director Kevin Smith, who used his Twitter account to complain about being
branded a "safety risk".
As well as the issue of their own and neighbouring passengers' comfort, there
are concerns over overweight people's swift evacuation and possible hindrance
of others in an emergency.
Start Quote
There's not much you can do without going to the extreme of taking out whole
lines of seats - and I can't see airlines doing that
End Quote Gary Davis Human Factors Consultancy
Gary Davis, Fellow of the Institute of Ergonomics & Human Factors, has been
working on cabin design with airlines for about 15 years.
"He says that research into seating materials had allowed seat backs to be made
thinner, increasing the space a passenger has up to the back of the seat in
front."
"So you effectively increase cabin space without losing any seats, so you get
the same number of seats in the aircraft but give the customer a better
experience - it's a win-win situation if you can achieve that."
The more pressing problem - literally - of overweight passengers encroaching on
neighbours' seats, was far harder to tackle, he says.
"In terms of the width of economy-class seats on commercial airliners, there's
not much you can do without going to the extreme of taking out whole lines of
seats - and I can't see airlines doing that very willingly."
In 2009, Irish budget carrier Ryanair announced it was considering a "fat tax"
on its largest customers. The idea, widely seen as a publicity stunt, was never
implemented.
Theatres
When London's Royal Festival Hall went through a 71m refit in 2004, more than
100 seats were removed to give audience members extra room.
How theatres are coping... or not
Theatre auditorium
"People were much smaller in Victorian and Edwardian times," says Mhora Samuel,
director of the Theatres Trust.
"Theatres included a lot of seats so their owners could make a decent profit.
Many of these theatres have since been refurbished to provide more leg room
between rows and more comfortable seats for 21st century sized people.
"However we are getting bigger and this can be an issue for some theatres that
have not been able to reseat their venues.
"Theatres try to accommodate the needs of all of their audiences but I have yet
to see any theatre put in super-sized seats to cater for larger customers."
This is typical of space problems now being experienced by a generation of
theatres built about a century ago, when, according to the Theatres Trust,
people were not just lighter on average but also about four inches shorter.
"Old theatres are probably one of the worst places where seat width and seat
pitch are really tight," says Mr Davis.
Last year, a US report suggested that between 1900 and 1990 the average width
of an American theatre seat expanded from 19 to 21 inches - then had increased
another inch in the 20 years after.
Modern auditoriums held half the number of people as similar-sized spaces
around 1900, the report added. And the bottom-line is all about those bums on
seats for theatres.
On top of the costs of renovating venues for the 21st Century, they face the
possibility of reduced revenue from fewer seats - while the public bears some
of the burden with higher ticket prices.
Sports stadia
Facing similar pressures of cramming high numbers of people on closely-packed
seating for prolonged periods are sports stadia.
The new Wembley stadium, which opened in 2007, offers seats that are 50cm wide
and 80cm deep - 9cm wider and 16cm deeper than at the old Wembley.
"There is more leg room in every seat in the new Wembley stadium than there was
in the royal box of the old stadium," the website declares.
Crematoria
Children can be set on the path to a lifetime of obesity before the age of two,
a US study suggested last year, making this genuinely a cradle-to-grave
problem.
And the challenge of larger and larger corpses is one that has had to be
addressed by crematoria in recent years.
Some councils have spent thousands on wider furnaces, according to the Local
Government Association. Grieving relatives have sometimes had to travel
hundreds of miles to the few venues that can handle over-sized coffins.
The Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management has predicted that a large
number of facilities will have to be upgraded because of this growing trend.