Obesity and longevity: The retrospective longitudinal analysis of international data

ObjectivesDue to the economic growth at the end of the 20th century people in low-income countries live longer, but still spend on food most of their income, and suffer from the low food quality. These countries, as well as affluent countries demonstrate rising prevalence of obesity, which is a risk factor for bad health and increased mortality. The interplay of longevity and obesity at different levels of economic development is not clear. DesignWe used World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Global Burden of Disease project data on population size, longevity, prevalence of obesity, and income as Gross domestic product per capita adjusted to purchasing power in international dollars. ResultsAfter we stratified countries by income, we found that there is a long-term increase in life expectancy with an increase in the prevalence of obesity in countries of all income levels. There is a higher prevalence of obesity in poor countries than in the affluent countries at the equal life expectancy. ConclusionsThe economic growth in all countries lead to increase in length of life and is associated with the increase of obesity prevalence. In poor countries the access to food and the food quality is limited as well as customs of consumption are different. It leads to the higher prevalence of overweight and obesity at similar level of length of life. It may be the cause of the slower progress in life expectancy.