Countries with high levels of overweight people, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, have the highest mortality rates because of Covid-19, reveals a historic report, urging governments to tackle obesity urgently as well how to prioritize vaccinations of overweight people.
About 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths in Covid occurred in countries with high levels of overweight people, says the World Federation of Obesity report. Countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Italy, where more than 50% of adults are overweight, have the highest proportions of deaths related to the coronavirus.
The problem is not just obesity, but the weight levels that many now assume are normal in many countries. Mortality rates are 10 times higher in those where more than half of adults had a body mass index (BMI) of more than 25 kg / m2 – the point at which normal weight becomes overweight.
Overweight people should have higher priority for vaccines and tests because of the increased risk of death, says the World Obesity Federation.
Among countries where more than half of the adult population is overweight, Belgium has the highest death rate, followed by Slovenia and the United Kingdom. Italy and Portugal are in 5th and 6th, while the USA is in 8th.
Vietnam, on the other hand, has the lowest Covid mortality rate in the world and the second lowest level of overweight in the population.
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The director-general of the World Health Organization said the report should act as a wake-up call to governments around the world to tackle obesity and the health problems it causes.
“The correlation between Covid-19’s obesity and mortality rates is clear and compelling,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“Investment in public health and coordinated international action to tackle the root causes of obesity is one of the best ways for countries to build resilience in post-pandemic health systems: we urge all countries to take advantage of this moment.”
The biggest factor in the number of deaths is age, the report says, but being overweight comes in second place. It is already known that it increases the risk of people when they contract infectious diseases like the flu.
“We were shocked to see such a high correlation between the proportion of overweight adults in a country and their deaths from Covid-19,” said Dr. Tim Lobstein, author of the report and former adviser to WHO and Public Health in England .
“We knew there was a problem in some countries, but we found that it was remarkably consistent across the world – with only a few outliers like New Zealand and Iceland, where they took strong steps to protect a vulnerable population.”
The risks increase with the increase in excess weight. An analysis of the data seen by the Guardian shows that in the UK, where almost 64% of adults are overweight or obese, almost 20% of Covid’s intensive care patients are of normal weight, 32% are overweight and 48% are obese. In the USA, where overweight and obesity in adults are 68%, 12% of Covid patients in intensive care are of normal weight, 24% are overweight and 64% are obese.
The results take age into account and are not distorted by insufficient data from some countries, said Lobstein. Deaths tend to be reported accurately, even if hospitalizations are not. They adjusted GDP and found that income levels did not contribute either. “There are rich countries with low levels of overweight, like Japan and South Korea, and they have very low Covid mortality rates. Likewise, there are low-income countries, such as South Africa and Brazil, where overweight is now affecting more than half the population, where we see high Covid-19 mortality rates, ”he said.
“We now know that an overweight population is the next pandemic waiting to happen,” said Lobstein.
“Governments have been negligent and ignore the economic value of a healthy population at their own risk. In the past decade, they have failed to tackle obesity, despite setting goals at United Nations meetings. Covid-19 is just the latest infection made worse by weight problems, but the warning signs were there. “
Most countries will not meet the UN target of halving the increase in obesity levels between 2010 and 2025. “It seems that governments want to avoid taking commercial interests in food and agriculture. As well as global warming and ocean pollution – the problem needs global leadership, ensuring that industry and the market exist to serve the health of people and the planet, ”he said.
It was a difficult decision for individuals, because losing weight is very difficult. “People make a living by selling individual weight plans and weight loss products, but in a society like ours, with its incentives to consume cheap food and its growing inequalities, personal products are obviously not enough,” he said.
Michael R. Bloomberg, WHO ambassador for noncommunicable diseases and injuries, said the results “underscore the importance of tackling obesity worldwide, including in low- and middle-income countries, where rates are rising faster. We have seen the positive impact that healthy eating policies have in dozens of countries and, together, we can make even more progress, saving and improving lives ”.