Mendis Shanthi, Graham Ian, Branca Francesco, Collins Tea, Tukuitonga Collin, Gunawardane Asela, Narula Jagat
The Geneva Learning Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland.
Cardiovascular Medicine, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Glob Heart. 2025 Aug 28;20(1):70. doi: 10.5334/gh.1459. eCollection 2025.
Obesity is a growing global crisis increasing the risk and outcomes of a range of noncommunicable diseases including cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, steatotic liver disease, and kidney disease.Obesity in children tracks into adulthood increasing their risk of noncommunicable diseases including cardiovascular diseases.A growing body of evidence confirms that there are affordable and scalable policies to promote a healthy diet and regular physical activity to prevent overweight and obesity including in children and adolescents.Despite the burden caused by obesity and its preventability, the topic does not appear to be a priority on the agenda of the global public health community and implementation of public health policies to prevent obesity at country level has been patchy.At the upcoming United Nations 4 High Level Meeting on noncommunicable diseases, Heads of State and Government need to go beyond making political commitments to prevent obesity and, take concrete steps to increase and monitor budget allocations for implementing policies for population wide prevention of physical inactivity and unhealthy diet.Obesity is a chronic disease that affects over one billion people in the world and is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. It is impossible to advance prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases, without simultaneously halting the rise of obesity. The 2018 political declaration of the 3 United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on noncommunicable diseases calls for the Implementation of cost-effective and evidence-based interventions to halt the rise of overweight and obesity, especially childhood obesity. Since then, the evidence supporting the impact of regular physical activity and a healthy diet on the prevention of obesity has become more compelling. However, the prevalence of obesity across all age groups has increased due to the ineffective public policy response, the fierce opposition from commercial actors, and difficulties in navigating implementation challenges. This paper outlines the growing evidence, recent developments, and lessons learnt since 2018 and highlights new opportunities and remaining challenges with regard to prevention of obesity, ahead of the 4th United Nations High-Level Meeting on noncommunicable diseases in September 2025.
肥胖是一个日益严重的全球危机，它增加了一系列非传染性疾病的风险和后果，这些疾病包括心血管疾病、2型糖尿病、癌症、慢性呼吸道疾病、脂肪性肝病和肾病。儿童肥胖会持续到成年期，增加他们患包括心血管疾病在内的非传染性疾病的风险。越来越多的证据证实，有一些经济实惠且可推广的政策来促进健康饮食和定期体育活动，以预防超重和肥胖，包括在儿童和青少年中。尽管肥胖造成了负担且具有可预防性，但这个话题似乎并非全球公共卫生界议程上的优先事项，而且各国在实施预防肥胖的公共卫生政策方面也参差不齐。在即将召开的联合国关于非传染性疾病的第四次高级别会议上，国家元首和政府首脑需要超越做出预防肥胖的政治承诺，采取具体措施增加并监督用于实施全民预防身体活动不足和不健康饮食政策的预算拨款。肥胖是一种慢性病，影响着全球超过10亿人，是心血管疾病、2型糖尿病和癌症的主要风险因素。如果不同时遏制肥胖率的上升，就不可能推进非传染性疾病的预防和控制。2018年联合国大会关于非传染性疾病的第三次高级别会议的政治宣言呼吁实施具有成本效益和基于证据的干预措施，以遏制超重和肥胖率的上升，特别是儿童肥胖率。从那时起，支持定期体育活动和健康饮食对预防肥胖的影响的证据变得更加有说服力。然而，由于公共政策应对措施无效、商业行为者的激烈反对以及应对实施挑战的困难，所有年龄组的肥胖患病率都有所上升。本文概述了自2018年以来越来越多的证据、最新进展和经验教训，并在2025年9月联合国关于非传染性疾病的第四次高级别会议之前，强调了预防肥胖方面的新机遇和尚存的挑战。
