The health and economic impacts of obesity

Abstract

The sharp rise in the prevalence of obesity in many countries have raised major global concern. Obesity is broadly preventable and has a complex multifactorial aetiology. The prevalence of obesity is on the rise and has increased by threefold since the mid 70s of last century. Obesity has overwhelming effect on individual’s health in terms of worsening morbidity and increased risk of mortality and on public health overall due to its economic burden on the health system. This narrative review utilises many published epidemiological studies that focus on the consequences of obesity in order to provide a framework for the overall cost of obesity in terms of its morbidity, mortality, and economic burden.