Egypt most obese nation, new study reveals

CAIRO - 16 June 2017: Egyptians adults have the highest obesity rates in the world, according to a new study released Tuesday by the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).

“Nineteen million Egyptian adults were found to be suffering from obesity, taking the highest rate in the world,” the study revealed.

“Obesity is a tremendous threat to health in Egypt. More than one in three Egyptians is obese. This puts them at high risk for diabetes, heart disease and different forms of cancer,” explained IHME Director Ali Mokdad in the study’s press release. “This is a potential health crisis that must be addressed sooner rather than later.”

The study, released at the annual ‘Eat Stockholm Food’ Forum, covered about 195 countries and territories from 1980 through 2015.

According to the study’s findings, 2 billion children and adults suffer from health problems related to being overweight. The United States and Egypt took the highest rates; however Egypt topped the list with about 35 percent, 10.2 percent of whom were children.

The lowest obesity rates were found in Bangladesh and Vietnam.

“Excess body weight is one of the most challenging public health problems of our time, affecting nearly one in every three people,” said Dr. Ashkan Afshin, the paper’s lead author and an Assistant Professor of Global Health at IHME.

IHME is a research institute affiliated with the University of Washington in Seattle that specializes in heath studies and analysis.