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[00:00.71] A new study estimates more than 1 billion people worldwide are currently living with obesity.

[00:09.74] People with obesity are considered medically overweight.

[00:15.84] The study, published in the medical publication The Lancet, said that one in eight people are obese.

[00:25.14] Researchers said around 43 percent of adults were overweight in 2022.

[00:33.91] Worldwide, obesity among adults has more than doubled since 1990, the study found.

[00:43.20] Among young people aged five to 19, the obesity rate increased by four times during the same period.

[00:54.10] “A staggering number of people are living with obesity,” declared the lead writer of the study, Majid Ezzati. He is a professor at Imperial College London.

[01:08.70] Severe obesity is strongly linked to a long list of health problems and an early death.

[01:17.73] Researchers used data from more than 3,600 population studies involving 222 million people, The Lancet reported.

[01:31.81] The study “measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population,” the researchers said.

[01:42.97] The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement that it shared data with other international researchers and helped to create the report.

[01:57.05] WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the study identifies the “importance of preventing and managing obesity from early life to adulthood.”

[02:14.31] The WHO noted that at the World Health Assembly in 2022, member states agreed to an agency plan to fight obesity.

[02:27.07] So far, 31 governments “are now leading the way” to reduce obesity by carrying out goals of the plan.

[02:38.75] These include government measures to enact new rules on “harmful” marketing of unhealthy food and drinks to children.

[02:49.11] In addition, governments are aiming to improve school and nutrition policies.

[02:56.03] They are also seeking price reductions for healthy foods, to increase public awareness about healthy diets and exercise and to strengthen requirements for physical activity in schools.

[03:13.02] Imperial College’s Ezzati said that obesity rates are not rising in many wealthier nations.

[03:22.32] But they are quickly increasing in other countries.

[03:26.57] He noted that some countries have many underweight people, meaning the nations are facing what he called a “double burden” of nutrition problems.

[03:39.85] Francesco Branca is head of nutrition at the WHO.

[03:45.16] He told reporters, “In the past, we have been thinking of obesity as a problem of the rich.

[03:53.92] Obesity is a problem of the world.”

[03:57.91] The research represented the first major report on the issue since 2017, with more than 1,500 scientists taking part.

[04:11.45] That report estimated around 774 million people above the age of five were living with obesity.

[04:22.34] Branca and Ezzati suggested that powerful new obesity drugs – such as Ozempic and Wegovy – could be helpful tools in reducing obesity.

[04:36.42] But they noted that the cost and availability of the drugs might increase inequality.