The Concept of CMR

Prevalence of obesity

Other affluent countries such as the United Kingdom have also experienced a sharp jump in obesity in recent decades. The Health Survey for England indicated that obesity rose threefold between 1980 and 2002. In 1980, 6% of men and 8% of women were obese. In 2002, these figures reached 23% for men and 25% for women. Like most other Western countries, obesity tended to increase with age (up to 64 years), be higher in people with low income or low education, and show an upward trend in children and adolescents, suggesting that obesity rates in young adults are sure to rise in coming years (16).

Obesity rates are lower in Scandinavian countries than in other developed societies. Yet obesity rates are also on the rise in this part of the world as well. According to the Survey of Living Conditions, obesity doubled in Swedish men and women aged 16 to 84 between 1980-1981 and 2002-2003 (17). Overweight and obesity rates increased dramatically between 1971 and 1995. Hardest hit were 18 year old boys. For them, the prevalence of overweight doubled to 16.3% and the prevalence of obesity almost quadrupled to 3.2% (18).

China is a good example of how the growing obesity epidemic takes root in countries moving to a capitalist, free market economy. China is the world’s most populated country with one-fifth of the world’s population. The country’s economy is growing exponentially with the per capita gross domestic product increasing tenfold between 1982 and 2000 (19).