One in three UK adults will be obese by 2012: report

16 December 2008

One in three UK adults or 13 million people will be obese by 2012, according to research conducted by UCL and the National Centre for Social Research in the UK and published in the 'Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health'.

According to the authors of the UCL-led study, entitled 'Trends in obesity among adults in England from 1993 to 2004 by age and social class and projections of prevalence to 2012', almost half of these will be from low income and disadvantaged communities, widening the health gap between the haves and have-nots even further.

The study concludes that it is therefore ''essential to implement effective strategies for the management and prevention of obesity and the reduction of social class inequalities in health''.

The researchers, Dr Paola Zaninotto, Jenny Head, Dr Emmanuel Stamatakis and Dr Jennifer Mindell from UCL Epidemiology & Public Health, have produced their findings from an analysis of annual data between 1993 and 2004 from the Health Survey for England, which samples a nationally representative cross-section of households and also provides information on occupation and social class.

The analysis included almost 128,000 adults with valid weight and height measurements, from which a body mass index (BMI) can be calculated. A BMI above 30 denotes obesity.

Between 1993 and 2004, the prevalence of obesity was found to have almost doubled in men, from 13.6 per cent to 24 per cent, and to have risen by almost 50 per cent among women, from 16.9 per cent to 24.4 per cent.