According to the World Health Organization, individuals with body mass indexes (BMIs) of 25.0 kg/m2 to 29.9 kg/m2 are considered overweight and BMIs of 30.0 kg/m2 and above are labelled as obese Higher…

According to the World Health Organization, individuals with body mass indexes (BMIs) of 25.0 kg/m2 to 29.9 kg/m2 are considered overweight and BMIs of 30.0 kg/m2 and above are labelled as obese

Higher dangers connected with overweight What’s more corpulence for Asia. 

According to the World Health Organization, individuals with body mass indexes (BMIs) of 25.0 kg/m2 to 29.9 kg/m² are considered overweight and BMIs of 30.0 kg/m² and above are labelled as obese. However, since Asians tend to have higher amounts of abdominal fat at lower BMIs, these cutoffs may be insufficient in identifying Asian individuals with a high risk of obesity-related morbidity and mortality. In 2000 the Western Pacific Regional Office of WHO (WPRO) proposed an alternative definition of overweight (BMI 23.0 – 24.9) and obesity (BMI ≥ 25.0) for Asian populations. Multiple studies have confirmed the validity of the WPRO’s definitions in Asian cohorts. At any given BMI above 25.0 kg/m², the respective mortality risk was higher among Asians in comparison to their US counterparts.

Reasons for this are speculative, but likely due to the following:

1. Asians have a higher percentage of fat at any given BMI, with proportionately higher cardiovascular risk.
2. Asians are more likely to develop central obesity, which is associated with higher risk of developing dyslipidaemia, impaired glucose tolerance, type 2 diabetes mellitus and CVD, as well as more adverse cardiovascular outcomes. One study demonstrated that children of Southeast Asian origin have a higher risk of increased blood pressure with higher BMIs compared to Caucasian children. Moreover, subsequent increase in Southeast Asian children’s BMI was accompanied by a more marked increase in systolic blood pressure compared to Caucasian children.
3. Asians engage in less physical activity than Caucasians. More than half of the adults in Taiwan admitted to having no leisure-time physical activity in the last two weeks, with 19 % meeting recommended physical activity in Taiwan, in contrast to 45 % in the US.

Obesity-associated diseases such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes mellitus are on the rise, too. The prevalence of diabetes in China almost quadrupled in the last 15 years, making it home to the largest diabetic population in the world, with over 92.4 million Chinese diabetics and 148.2 million with impaired glucose tolerance. Malaysia experienced a twofold increase in diabetes prevalence from 11.6 % in 2006 to 22.6 % in 2018. In India, urban populations experienced a substantial increase in coronary heart disease prevalence from 1.05 % in 1960 to 9.67 % in 1995.