Okay, we agree, it was a bad analogy to begin with. Nevertheless, when you are living in a world where one in every three people are either overweight or obese, we think it’s rather an appropriate one.
Based on a global study, the prevalence of obesity is on the rise. Doesn’t matter if you are a boy or a girl, man or woman, living in the developed or developing part of the world – it’s true for everyone. Therefore, the assumption that only rich and lazy people are obese is becoming a myth everyday.
The study that we are talking about was published in The Lancet and used data from 1,769 individual studies from 183 countries. So, where does the world stand? Globally, in the last three decades – 1980 to 2013 – the proportion of overweight or obese people has increased considerably. For men, the corresponding numbers are a little lower than women (28.8% to 36.9% versus 29.8% to 38.0%).
So, who are getting fat? Interestingly, more men were overweight and obese than women in developed countries, whereas the opposite was true in developing countries. Unfortunately, adults weren’t the only ones putting on the pounds – rates of excess weight in children and adolescents also increased. Between 1980 and 2013, in developed countries, the prevalence of weight problems and obesity had increased from 16.9% to 23.8% among boys and from 16.2% to 22.6% among girls.
Let’s look into Bangladesh. Don’t be content thinking that this is not our problem and we have far more people who are hungry and malnourished. In 1980, one in every 14 adults was overweight or obese, and in 2013, this had gone up to one in every six adults. Look around you, one in every six adult you see will be obese or overweight. For children the numbers didn’t go up so drastically, but it’s still good news for a developing country.
The specific causes of obesity are beyond the scope of this article. However, some believe that as the economies of developing countries continue to improve, the risk of becoming obese increases. In addition, it has been found that although urbanisation and related dietary changes improve health to a certain extent, they place a city dweller at risk of certain health problems, including obesity.
So, what are the consequences? Like tobacco, obesity causes, or is closely linked with, a large number of health conditions, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, unhealthy levels of cholesterol, asthma, sleep apnea, gallstones, kidney stones, infertility, and as many as 11 types of cancers, including leukemia, breast, and colon cancer. No less real are the social and emotional effects of obesity, including discrimination, lower wages, lower quality of life, and a likely susceptibility to depression.
Studies from the developing world demonstrate quite unequivocally that obesity is negatively associated with a person’s productivity and work performance. An obese person reportedly experiences a 50% increase in lost productivity and visits the doctor 88% more times than a healthy person. Studies have also reported that obese people were up to two times more likely to take a large number of sick days in a year compared to lean people, either through absence from illness or for a doctor’s appointment.
Little research on the economic impact of obesity in developing countries has been undertaken, making it difficult to assess the impact accurately. In this regard, we have to keep in mind that, the ability or willingness of a country to increase healthcare expenditure is influenced primarily by the amount of public money available. Given that the GDPs of developing countries like Bangladesh are reliant less on technical and service-oriented work and more on industrial and labour-intensive work, a loss of this workforce will contribute to a slowing of overall growth and a reduction in GDP. Parallel with the economic effects will be a greater need for public money for health care expenditure. This demand may impede the repayment of external debts, essentially creating a need for continued external borrowing and a slowing of the development process.
What could be the way out? As we always say – the first thing is to agree that obesity has become an issue in Bangladesh. Then comes a strong political commitment. The reason why we are saying political commitment is important is because of the examples from US First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign. This campaign has brought a lot of attention towards the obesity epidemic in the US. If we can have something like this in Bangladesh, the elephant in the room will not be ignored anymore.
