1 of 28

MPH 629 Group Project:

Obesity and Death Prevalence with

Data from WHO

Group 1: Aileen Castillo, Anthony Soria, Honorine Uwimana, Daisy Valdez, and Denicka Posadas

2 of 28

Background:

“Worldwide, at least 2.8 million people die each year as a result of being overweight or obese, and an estimated 35.8 million (2.3%) of global DALYs are caused by overweight or obesity,” (WHO). �

Obesity is known to cause many different health problems that are associated with death such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and others.

3 of 28

Obesity is a complex multifactorial non-communicable disease defined by excessive adiposity that can impair health.

Obesity is also one of the key risk factors for many non-communicable diseases (NCD) such as coronary heart disease, hypertension and stroke, certain types of cancer, type 2 diabetes, gallbladder disease, dyslipidemia, osteoarthritis and gout, and pulmonary diseases, including sleep apnea.

Obesity is the most important modifiable risk factor for type 2 diabetes.

Obesity:

4 of 28

According to the Centers for Disease Prevention (CDC,2020), From 1999 –2000 through 2017, US obesity prevalence increased from 30.5% to 41.9%.

During the same time, the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO,2016), there are around 2 billion adults overweight, and of those 650 million are considered to be affected by obesity (BMI≥30Kg/m²).

That equates to 39% (39% of men and 40% of women) of adults who were overweight, with 13% obese. The worldwide prevalence of obesity nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016 (WHO, 2021)

Overweight and obesity kills more people globally than underweight(WHO, 2021)

Global Trends:

5 of 28

Datasets and Analysis

In our project we use two datasets from the World Health Organization (WHO) to identify if there is an association between deaths and obesity.

Global Health Observatory
Probability of dying between ages 30-70 years from cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, or chronic respiratory disease.

We used 2016 datasets of obesity and death to compare both sexes, females vs. males to create maps for data analysis.

Out of the 245 output tables, 195 (obesity) and 183 (deaths) were able to join. This may be from countries not affiliated with WHO, or countries not up to par with WHO.

For BMI classifications: 18.49 below is underweight, 18.5 to 24.99 is healthy weight, 25 to 29.99 is overweight, 30 to 39.99 is obesity, and 40 and above is extreme obesity.

6 of 28

Map 1: 2016, Female and Male Obesity from WHO

7 of 28

8 of 28

9 of 28

10 of 28

11 of 28

12 of 28

Implication of Obesity Rates

13 of 28

Why it Matters?

Obesity is preventable, but continues to lead in preventable deaths.
Obesity is considered a modern epidemic in most parts of the world.
Worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975, with about 13% of adults being obese and about 39% of adults being overweight (WHO, 2019).

14 of 28

Histogram of both sexes Obesity 2016

15 of 28

Histogram of Females and Males Obesity 2016

Females

Males

16 of 28

Scatterplot of Males Vs. Females Obesity 2016

Females

Males

17 of 28

18 of 28

19 of 28

20 of 28

Histograms of Probability of Death

Females

Males

Both Sexes

21 of 28

22 of 28

23 of 28

Denicka

Top 10 Countries with most obesity and % of death. Prevalence, smaller countries with smaller populations.

Nauru, Cook Islands, Palau, Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Niue, Lesotho, Micronesia, Solomon Islands and Fiji.

As nutrient transmission (change in diet) is the primary cause of the obesity epidemic in the Pacific Islands as the share of imported foods high in salt and fat content continue to grow

Nutritionist Katrina Mather, “The common denominator is a massive shift in what these nations eat and drink.”

“In non-Western cultures, where traditional diets predominantly consist of unprocessed foods and are low in sugar, it takes only one generation of people eating a more typical Western diet, high in sugar and refined flour, to become predisposed to obesity and develop diabetes,” she added.

24 of 28

Scatterplot of Obesity and Probability of Dying

Obesity

Deaths

25 of 28

Top 10 Countries of Obesity and Deaths

Nauru	6. Kiribati
2. Cook Islands	7. Lesotho
3. Palau	8. Micronesia
4. Marshall Islands	9. Vanuatu
5. Tuvalu	10. Solomon Islands

26 of 28

27 of 28

Solutions to Combat Obesity

28 of 28

References

Obesity Rates by Country 2022. Obesity rates by country 2022. (n.d.). Retrieved July 5, 2022, from https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/obesity-rates-by-country

World Health Organization. (2015). Who European Health Information at your fingertips. World Health Organization. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://gateway.euro.who.int/en/themes/obesity-physical-activity-and-nutrition/infographics/

World Health Organization. (2013). Nutrition, physical activity and obesity Austria . Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Austria. Retrieved July 8, 2022, from https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/243285/Austria-WHO-Country-Profile.pdf

World Health Organization. (2021, June 9). Obesity and overweight. World Health Organization. Retrieved July 1, 2022, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight#:~:text=Of%20these%20over%20650%20million%20adults%20were%20obese.,tripled%20between%201975%20and%202016.