Obesity rising in developing countries, warns OECD

Nov 11, 2010, 0:01 GMT

Paris - Emerging economies should take immediate action to reverse the rising incidence of obesity before the problem reaches levels seen in industrial nations, the OECD said Thursday.

In a report published in The Lancet, the OECD assessed obesity levels in the emerging countries of Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa.

It said that unhealthy diets and physical inactivity were pushing obesity rates rapidly toward those seen in OECD countries, where half of the population is already overweight and one in six people is considered obese.

In Mexico, seven in 10 Mexican adults were now overweight or obese, while nearly half of all Brazilians, Russians and South Africans were also in this category.

China and India reported lower levels of obesity, but were also rapidly moving in the wrong direction, the OECD warned.

In the report, the OECD strongly recommends that developing countries address the pending obesity epidemic now, as part of wider comprehensive health prevention strategies, rather than wait until the costs of treating obesity-related illness is much more expensive.

The annual cost of broad-based prevention strategies tackling obesity and other health threats would be less than 2 dollars per person annually in India and China, less than 3 dollars in Brazil, and around 4 dollars per person in South Africa, Russia and Mexico.

'A multiple intervention strategy would achieve substantially larger health gains than individual programs, with better cost- effectiveness,' said OECD health policy analyst and lead author Michele Cecchini.

The OECD says the strategy would pay for itself - through reduced health care costs - in half the countries surveyed, and would become cost-effective in the others within 15 years.

The report also addresses the growing incidence of childhood obesity in developing countries, which is lower than that seen in OECD countries, but also moving quickly in the wrong direction.

The OECD suggests countries take specific action to fight childhood obesity, particularly tougher regulation of food advertising directed at children.

OECD report is available at: www.oecd.org/health/chronicdiseases

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