Obesity is complex
A number of studies place the UK high on the obesity league table. A 2022 report by the WHO, for instance, ranked the UK third (behind Turkey and Malta) for having the most obese adults of the 52 countries in the WHO European region. Despite many studies highlighting France and Italy for having the lowest rates in Europe, in this report they ranked 31st and 43rd respectively – much lower than the UK but not at the bottom.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (EOCD) also places the UK well ahead of France and Italy in obesity prevalence. Its most recent report states that 64% of the UK population aged 15 and over is overweight or obese, compared with 46% in Italy and 45% in France.
Consistently, it seems the UK has higher rates of obesity than Italy and France. However, comparing the prevalence of obesity across countries is not clear cut, warns Rachel Jackson Leach, science director of the World Obesity Federation.
She explains that some studies use self-report data, where people report their height and weight themselves. Certain studies use corrected data, which adjusts for errors in this self-reporting, while other data is based on measured height and weight. “We always advise against using self-report data with measured data,” says the expert.
World Obesity Federation figures compare obesity rates (which don’t include everyone classed as simply overweight) across countries using estimated data and are the most accurate, continues Jackson Leach. By this measure, around 30% of women and 28% of men in the UK live with obesity, compared with 22% of women and 23% of men in France, and 20% of women and 21% of men in Italy.
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