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Countries with high levels of overweight people, like UK and US, have highest death rates from Covid-19, landmark report reveals, urging governments to urgently fight obesity and prioritizing overweight people for vaccinations.
About 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from Covid have occurred in countries with high overweight rates, the World Obesity Federation report says. Countries like the UK, US and Italy, where more than 50% of adults are overweight, have the highest proportions of coronavirus-related deaths.
The problem is not just obesity, but the weight levels that many consider normal in many countries. Death rates are 10 times higher in those where more than half of adults had a body mass index (BMI) greater than 25 kg / m2 – the time when normal weight switches to overweight.
Overweight people should be given a higher priority for vaccinations and testing because of their increased risk of death, says the World Obesity Federation.
Among countries where more than half of the adult population is overweight, Belgium has the highest death rate, followed by Slovenia and the United Kingdom. Italy and Portugal are 5th and 6th, while the United States is 8th.
Vietnam, on the other hand, has the lowest Covid death rate in the world and the second lowest level of overweight in the population.
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The director-general of the World Health Organization said the report must serve as a reminder to governments around the world to tackle obesity and the ill health it causes.
“The correlation between obesity and death rates from Covid-19 is clear and compelling,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“Investing in public health and coordinated international action to tackle the root causes of obesity is one of the best ways for countries to strengthen the resilience of health systems after the pandemic: we urge all country to seize this moment. “
The biggest factor in the death toll is age, according to the report, but being overweight comes in second. It is already known that it increases the risk of people when they contract infectious diseases such as the flu.
“We were shocked to see such a high correlation between the proportion of overweight adults in a country and its deaths from Covid-19,” said Dr Tim Lobstein, author of the report and former WHO adviser and Public Health England.
“We knew there was a problem in a few countries, but found it to be remarkably consistent across the world – with only a few outliers like New Zealand and Iceland where they took action energetic to protect a vulnerable population. ”
The risks increase with the increase of overweight. Analysis of data viewed by the Guardian shows that in the UK, where nearly 64% of adults are overweight or obese, nearly 20% of Covid patients in intensive care are of normal weight, 32% are overweight and 48% are obese. In the United States, where overweight and obesity in adults is 68%, 12% of Covid patients in intensive care are at normal weight, 24% are overweight and 64% are obese.
The results take age into account and are not skewed by bad data from some countries, Lobstein said. Deaths tend to be reported accurately even if hospitalizations are not. They adjusted the GDP and found that income levels did not play a role either. “There are rich countries with low levels of overweight, like Japan and South Korea, and they have very low Covid death rates. Likewise, there are low-income countries like South Africa and Brazil, where overweight now affects more than half of the population, where we see high death rates linked to Covid-19 ”, a- he declared.
“We now know that an overweight population is the next pandemic that’s waiting to happen,” Lobstein said.
“Governments have been negligent and have ignored the economic value of a healthy population at their peril. Over the past decade, they have failed to tackle obesity, despite setting goals for themselves at United Nations meetings. Covid-19 is just the latest infection exacerbated by weight issues, but the warning signs were there. “
Most countries are expected to miss the United Nations target of halving the increase in obesity levels between 2010 and 2025. “Governments seem to want to avoid attacking commercial interests in food and health. ‘Agriculture. Just like global warming and ocean pollution, the problem needs global leadership, ensuring that industry and the market are there to serve the health of people and the health of the planet, ”he said. declared.
It was a difficult call for individuals because losing weight is very difficult. “People make a living selling individual weight diets and weight loss products, but in a society like ours, with its incentives for cheap food consumption and growing inequalities, personal products are obviously not enough. “, did he declare.
Michael R. Bloomberg, WHO Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries, said the findings “underscore the importance of tackling obesity around the world, including in low- and middle-income countries where the rates increase the fastest. We have seen the positive impact of healthy food policies in dozens of countries, and together we can make even more progress to save and improve lives. “
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