Experts discussed the rising epidemic of obesity at the 19th Asian
Pacific Congress of Cardiology in Pattaya, Thailand.
Over eating, sedentary
lifestyles, cultural attitudes, and lack of prevention programs are to blame
for the rising epidemic of obesity in the Asia Pacific region, say
cardiovascular experts at the 19th Asian Pacific Congress of Cardiology held
from February 21-24 in Pattaya, Thailand.
Overweight and obesity has
quadrupled in China and societies still label people of healthy weight as poor,
they said.
“In many of the countries in Asia
Pacific the malnutrition problem nowadays is not undernutrition it is
overnutrition, which has resulted in overweight and obesity,” said Professor
Kui-Hian Sim, President Elect of the Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology.
The Asia Pacific Cohort Studies
Collaboration (APCSC) found that the prevalence of overweight and obesity among
14 countries in the Asia Pacific region varied considerably by country.
The prevalence of obesity
(BMI>30) in men ranged from 0.3 percent in India and 1.3 percent in
Indonesia to 13.8 percent in Mongolia and 19.3 percent in Australia. In women
the lowest rates were found in India (0.6 percent), China and Japan (both 3.4
percent) and the highest rates in Australia (22.2 percent) and Mongolia (24.6
percent).
“Asia Pacific has developed
rapidly and technological advances mean that children now spend too much time
on the internet and mobile devices so they don’t take up much physical
activity,” said Sim.
“The Asian culture revolves
around food as a way of showing hospitality because in the past there was a lot
of famine. As a result there is a cultural perception that if you’re not fat or
obese then you are not well off,” he said.
Dr. Rachel Huxley, an APCSC
co-investigator, said that although the absolute prevalence of obesity in
Australia was considerably higher than that of China and Japan, the relative
increases in the prevalence over the last 20 years has been much greater in
these two Asian countries than in Australia.
The combined prevalence of
overweight and obesity increased by 46 percent in Japan from 16.7 percent in
1976-1980 to 24 percent in 2000 and by 414 percent in China from 3.7 percent in
1982 to 19 percent in 2002.
The APCSC researchers also
calculated the population attributable fraction for cardiovascular disease due
to overweight and obesity in these 14 countries.
Taking China as an example, despite
the relatively low prevalence of overweight and obesity, it accounted for just
over 3 percent of fatal coronary heart disease and 3.5 percent fatal ischemic
stroke.
At the other end of the scale,
overweight and obesity accounted for nearly 8 percent of coronary heart disease
in Mongolia and over 9 percent in Australia. It also accounted for nearly 9
percent of ischemic stroke in Mongolia and more than 10 percent in Australia.
“Increasing ‘westernization’ of
lower- and middle-income countries in the Asia Pacific region is associated
with increasing gross domestic product (GDP) and the adoption of more
westernized patterns of physical inactivity and diets richer in calories and
fat. The influx of fast food, confectionery and soft drink companies into the
region is likely to further exacerbate the obesity problem,” said Huxley.
Huxley recommended policy changes
that could influence the food environment such as mandatory use of food
labeling, higher taxes on high fat/energy foods, restricted advertising on fast
food (especially to children), and food subsidies for fruits and vegetables.
There also needed to be a
concerted effort by medical experts in tackling the obesity epidemic, said
Prof. Sim.
“Very little has been done about
overweight and obesity in the Asia Pacific region because it doesn’t belong to
any specialty. Cardiologists focus on smoking and risk stratification while
diabetologists look at blood sugar. Cardiologists need to take up the challenge
of obesity in order to curb the cardiovascular epidemic,” said Sim.
Source: European Society of Cardiology;
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