MedWire News: Over half the world's population will be overweight or obese by 2030 if current trends continue, researchers warn.

The findings indicate that diseases associated with obesity, such as heart disease, diabetes and some types of cancer, will also increase dramatically over the next few decades if public health initiatives to combat obesity prove unsuccessful.

"The prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing at an alarming rate in developed and developing countries throughout the world," explain Dr J He, from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, Loiusiana, USA, and team.

But they add that although rates of overweight and obesity have been reported from individual countries in various regions of the world "these data have not been systematically reviewed and pooled to estimate the worldwide prevalence and absolute burden of overweight and obesity".

To address this, the team compiled the results from 72 national, 22 multi-site and 14 regional overweight and obesity studies from 106 countries, covering approximately 88% of the world's population, which were published between 1990 and 2007.

Analysis revealed that, in 2005, around 23.2% (937 million people) of the world's adult population was overweight and 9.8% (396 million people) were obese.

Based on current trends, the researchers calculate that by 2030, the number of overweight people will more than double to 2.16 billion and the number of obese adults will increase to 1.12 billion during the same time period.

This indicates that around 58% of the world's adult population with be overweight or obese by 2030.

Writing in the International Journal of Obesity, Dr He and team conclude: "National programmes for the prevention and treatment of overweight, obesity and related comorbidities [illnesses] and mortalities should be a public health priority.

"Unfortunately, such public health interventions in developing countries are scarce. Initiatives in these regions would be particularly beneficial as most overweight and obese individuals will reside in the developing world."

They add: "A reduction in the global burden of overweight and obesity will translate into worldwide decreases in diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, all-cause mortality and other associated complications."