Abstract
The World Health Organization has termed the increased prevalence of obesity and diabetes as a “twenty-first-century epidemic.” Overweight and obesity are the fifth leading risk for global deaths and during the past 30 years they have nearly doubled: nowadays, 35 % of adults aged 20 and over are overweight, and 11 % are obese. At least 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. Preventing and managing overweight and obesity are complex problems, with no easy answers and the increasing rate of obesity has raised serious concern for governments and public health organizations. Many countries have implemented intervention programs with the aim of reducing the burden of disease due to obesity and its consequences. Obesity is a major risk factor for a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes mellitus; therefore, rise in obesity triggers a parallel increase in diabetes. The number of people who develop both type 1 and type 2 diabetes is increasing. Worldwide, 382 million people have diabetes and in 2035 they could be 592 million. Management of the disease is not optimal and does not reach many, perhaps the majority, of the people who could benefit, although there is now extensive evidence that the optimal management of diabetes could improve the immediate and long-term quality of life of patients and avoid complications. In consideration of its unsustainable burden, diabetes is getting its place on the global health agenda and now several health policy programs are available to tackle the problem.
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Ferriero, A., Specchia, M. (2015). Obesity and Diabetes. In: Boccia, S., Villari, P., Ricciardi, W. (eds) A Systematic Review of Key Issues in Public Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13620-2_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13620-2_6
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