THE WAISTLINES of Irish men and women are among the widest in Western Europe, according to a new study which measures obesity around the world.
The report, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, showed that 66 per cent of Irish men over the age of 20 are above their recommend weight, while 51 per cent of women in the same age bracket are classed as being overweight or obese.
According to the Global Burden of Disease study, that used data taken from 1980 to 2013, only six countries out of 22 in Western Europe fared worse while five countries have higher rates in terms of women’s weight.
However, the figures are lower than in Britain, where 67 per cent of men and 57 per cent of women are obese or overweight.
Britain ranked third in the world in the measure of overweight men and women, with Iceland and Malta placing first and second respectively.
Obesity rates for men and women in Ireland are at about 23 per cent.
The research, published by the Lancet medical journal, found that the number of overweight and obese people in the world had more than doubled over the past three decades.
In 2013, around 2.1 billion people – almost 30 per cent of the planet’s population – were overweight or obese, up from 857million in 1980.
Although the rise in obesity rates appears to be slowing in some countries, it has yet to be reversed in any and has led to increasing trends of health problems including diabetes, heart disease and cancers.
"Obesity is an issue affecting people of all ages and incomes, everywhere," said Dr Christopher Murray, co-founder of the Global Burden of Disease study.
"In the last three decades, not one country has achieved success in reducing obesity rates, and we expect obesity to rise steadily as incomes rise in low- and middle-income countries in particular, unless urgent steps are taken to address this public health crisis."
More than half of the world’s 671million obese individuals were drawn from just 10 countries, according to the study.
