Abstract
Obesity has become a major determinant of morbidity and mortality in many areas of the world, the most important diseases being type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal and psychological disorders as well as several types of cancer. For example, the relative risk of contracting disease among obese was estimated to be in the order of 6.74 in males and 12.41 in females for type 2 diabetes, 1.84 in males and 2.42 in females for hypertension, 1.72 in males and 3.10 in females for coronary artery disease, 4.20 in males and 1.96 in females for osteoarthritis, 1.82 in males and 2.64 in females for kidney cancer and 3.22 for endometrial cancer (Guh et al. 2009).
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Pigeot, I., Moreno, L.A., Ahrens, W. (2011). Introduction. In: Moreno, L., Pigeot, I., Ahrens, W. (eds) Epidemiology of Obesity in Children and Adolescents. Springer Series on Epidemiology and Public Health, vol 2. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6039-9_1
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