Creeping epidemic of obesity hits Asia Pacific region

80 percent of all cardiovascular disease is preventable and policies should be encouraged to make healthy choices easy

2013-02-21

(Press-News.org) Sophia Antipolis, 21 February 2013: Over eating, sedentary lifestyles, cultural attitudes, and lack of prevention programmes are to blame for the rising epidemic of obesity in the Asia Pacific region. Overweight and obesity has quadrupled in China and societies still label people of healthy weight as poor.

Prevention will be an important theme at the 19th Asian Pacific Congress of Cardiology held 21-24 February 2013 in Pattaya, Thailand. Experts from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) will lead a one day collaborative programme on 23 February.

Professor Kui-Hian Sim, President Elect of the Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology, said: "In many of the countries in Asia Pacific the malnutrition problem nowadays is not undernutrition it is overnutrition, which has resulted in overweight and obesity."

He added: "Asia Pacific has developed rapidly and technological advances mean that children now spend too much time on the internet and mobile devices so they don't take up much physical activity. The Asian culture revolves around food as a way of showing hospitality because in the past there was a lot of famine. As a result there is a cultural perception that if you're not fat or obese then you are not well off."

The Asia Pacific Cohort Studies Collaboration (APCSC) found that the prevalence of overweight and obesity among 14 countries in the Asia Pacific region varied considerably by country.1 The prevalence of obesity (BMI>30k/m2) in men ranged from 0.3% in India and 1.3% in Indonesia to 13.8% in Mongolia and 19.3% in Australia. In women the lowest rates were found in India (0.6%), China and Japan (both 3.4%) and the highest rates in Australia (22.2%) and Mongolia (24.6%).

But Dr Rachel Huxley (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA), APCSC co-investigator, said: "Although the absolute prevalence of obesity in Australia was considerably higher than that of China and Japan, the relative increases in the prevalence over the last 20 years, has been much greater in these two Asian countries than in Australia."

The combined prevalence of overweight and obesity increased by 46% in Japan from 16.7% in 1976-1980 to 24% in 2000 and by 414% in China from 3.7% in 1982 to 19% in 2002.

The APCSC researchers also calculated the population attributable fraction for cardiovascular disease due to overweight and obesity in these 14 countries. Taking China as an example, despite the relatively low prevalence of overweight and obesity, it accounted for just over 3% of fatal coronary heart disease and 3.5% fatal ischemic stroke. At the other end of the scale, overweight and obesity accounted for nearly 8% of coronary heart disease in Mongolia and over 9% in Australia. It also accounted for nearly 9% of ischaemic stroke in Mongolia and more than 10% in Australia.

Dr Huxley said: "There is convincing evidence that a sedentary lifestyle (due to a combination of reduced physical activity in the workplace and during leisure time), combined with energy dense diets are the key drivers of the obesity epidemic. Increasing 'westernisation' of lower- and middle-income countries in the Asia Pacific region is associated with increasing gross domestic product (GDP) and the adoption of more westernized patterns of physical inactivity and diets richer in calories and fat. The influx of fast food, confectionary and soft drink companies into the region is likely to further exacerbate the obesity problem."

She added: "In high income countries there is an inverse association between income/education with obesity, whereas in lower-middle income countries the reverse is more commonly found."

The longest ongoing cardiovascular epidemiological study in India found that over a 20 year period BMI and overweight increased in urban middle-SES populations.2 More education was significantly associated with an increase in overweight. The authors concluded: "The process of disease transition has started in the Indian middle class and a decline fuelled by socioeconomic changes and increasing education is inevitable in this group".

The APCSC found that Western risk factors act similarly in Asia and Australasia as in other parts of the world meaning that risk reduction strategies are equally important here – if not more important given the vast population.3

Dr Huxley said: "Strategies should focus on the food environment (ie making healthy food choices the easiest and cheapest option) and the physical environment to promote incidental physical activity (for example making using the stairs instead of lifts more convenient and increasing the walkability of towns and cities) as well as leisure time physical activity."

She added: "In addition there are a number of policy areas that could influence the food environment such as mandatory use of food labelling, higher taxes on high fat/energy foods, restricted advertising on fast food (especially to children) and food subsidies for fruits and vegetables."

The ESC advocates such regulations, particularly when lifestyle changes have not worked.4 Professor Panos Vardas, President of the ESC, said: "The 2012 European prevention guidelines state that 80-90% of all cardiovascular disease is preventable.5 Politicians and health professionals in the Asia Pacific region need to do more to make the healthy choice the easy choice, to avoid the high rates of obesity increasing even further."

Professor Sim concluded: "Very little has been done about overweight and obesity in the Asia Pacific region because it doesn't belong to any specialty. Cardiologists focus on smoking and risk stratification while diabetologists look at blood sugar. Cardiologists need to take up the challenge of obesity in order to curb the cardiovascular epidemic."

### END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Organic tomatoes accumulate more vitamin C, sugars than conventionally grown fruit

2013-02-21

Tomatoes grown on organic farms accumulate higher concentrations of sugars, vitamin C and compounds associated with oxidative stress compared to those grown on conventional farms, according to research published February 20 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Maria Raquel Alcantara Miranda and colleagues from the Federal University of Ceara, Brazil. In their study, the researchers compared the weights and biochemical properties of tomatoes from organic and conventional farms. They found that tomatoes grown on organic farms were approximately 40% smaller than those ...

People with disabilities at greater risk of violence and subsequent mental ill-health

2013-02-21

People with disabilities are at a greater risk of being the victims of violence and of suffering mental ill health when victimized, according to research published February 20 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Hind Khalifeh and colleagues from University College London and King's College London. A recent World Report on Disability highlighted violence as a leading cause of morbidity among disabled people. The research published today is the first to assess the extent to which people with disabilities experience different kinds of violence and the associated health ...

Mosquitoes exposed to DEET once are less repelled by it a few hours later

2013-02-21

Mosquitoes are able to ignore the smell of the insect repellent DEET within a few hours of being exposed to it, according to research published February 20 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by James Logan, Nina Stanczyk and colleagues from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK. Though most insects are strongly repelled by the smell of DEET, previous studies by Logan's research group have shown that some flies and mosquitoes carry a genetic change in their odor receptors that makes them insensitive to this smell. The new results reported in the PLOS ONE ...

Does bariatric surgery impact medical costs associated with obesity?

2013-02-21

Bariatric surgery is a well-documented treatment for obesity that leads to considerable weight loss and health improvement, but is the surgery successful in the long run in reducing costs associated with medical care for obesity? A team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Medicine recently undertook a multi-year analysis of health insurance claims data to examine this question and found that although the procedure's success rate is well documented, it does not have a similar impact on health care costs. The findings were ...

New injectable hydrogel encourages regeneration and improves functionality after a heart attack

2013-02-21

University of California, San Diego bioengineers have demonstrated in a study in pigs that a new injectable hydrogel can repair damage from heart attacks, help the heart grow new tissue and blood vessels, and get the heart moving closer to how a healthy heart should. The results of the study were published Feb. 20 in Science Translational Medicine and clear the way for clinical trials to begin this year in Europe. The gel is injected through a catheter without requiring surgery or general anesthesia -- a less invasive procedure for patients. There are an estimated 785,000 ...

Researchers find multiple tests needed to detect infection in low birth-weight newborns

2013-02-21

New research by Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and Yale University School of Medicine finds that cultures commonly used to detect bacterial infections in low birth-weight newborns with early onset sepsis may actually overlook some germs. The research done at Case Western Reserve supports the need for multiple detection methods, such as DNA genomic analyses and other independent culture technologies, to identify bacteria that culturing may miss, said Yiping Han, professor of Periodontics and Reproductive Biology at the Case Western Reserve dental ...

Digital processing system avoids 17.4 million drug errors in US in 1 year

2013-02-21

Processing a prescription through an electronic ordering system can halve the likelihood of a drug error, and avert more than 17 million such incidents in US hospitals in one year alone, indicates research published online in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. And if much more widely adopted than at present, the system has the potential to cut out 50 million drug errors a year, calculate the researchers. The US Institute of Medicine estimates that, on average, at least one mistake will be made with a hospital patient's medication every day. Computerised ...

Myth that UK supply of innovative new pharma drugs is drying up

2013-02-21

The widely held belief that the UK supply of innovative new medicines has conspicuously dwindled in recent decades, is not borne out by the evidence, reveals research published in the online journal BMJ Open. In fact, the reverse may be true, the figures suggest. The prevailing view is that pharmaceutical industry innovation has been in decline, with fewer new drugs launched in recent decades than before—despite more cash being pumped into research and development—prompting a good deal of hand-wringing, say the authors. They wanted to find out whether this view was ...

Bullied children can suffer lasting psychological harm as adults

2013-02-21

DURHAM, NC – Bullied children grow into adults who are at increased risk of developing anxiety disorders, depression and suicidal thoughts, according to a study led by researchers at Duke Medicine. The findings, based on more than 20 years of data from a large group of participants initially enrolled as adolescents, are the most definitive to date in establishing the long-term psychological effects of bullying. Published online Feb. 20, 2013, in JAMA Psychiatry, the study belies a common perception that bullying, while hurtful, inflicts a fleeting injury that victims ...

Scrap 'unwinnable' drugs war and divert funds into curbing global antibiotic misuse

2013-02-21

Governments around the world should stop squandering resources fighting an "unwinnable war" against illegal drugs, such as cocaine and heroin. Instead, they should use the cash to curb antibiotic misuse, which poses a far more serious threat to human health, claims a leading ethicist in the Journal of Medical Ethics. Dr Jonny Anomaly, of Duke University, Durham in North Carolina, USA, says that concerted collective action is needed to tackle the excessive and casual prescribing of antibiotics, which has led to a worrying rise in resistance to these medicines. "Government ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New way to find “aged” cells marks fresh approach for research into ageing

From blood sugar to brain relief: GLP-1 therapy slashes migraine frequency

Variability in heart rate during sleep may reveal early signs of stroke, depression or cognitive dysfunction, new study shows

New method to study catalysts could lead to better batteries

Current Molecular Pharmacology impact factor rises to 2.9, achieving Q2 ranking in the Pharmacology & Pharmacy category in 2024 JCR

Stable cooling fostered life, rapid warming brought death: scientists use high-resolution fusuline data reveal evolutionary responses to cooling and warming