World Obesity Day 2023: Obesity is a global health crisis

World Obesity Day is observed every year on March 4 to spread awareness among the common people about all the important factors related to obesity to prevent the ever-increasing cases of obesity and the diseases triggered due to it.

Hyderabad: Obesity is a condition that can lead to multiple other severe problems in people. It is considered one of the biggest health crises the world is facing currently. Every year on March 4, World Obesity Day is observed globally to spread awareness about the causes of obesity and to promote effective solutions for its diagnosis and prevention.

In the year 2023, World Obesity Day is being observed around the theme "Changing Perspectives: Let's Talk About Obesity", with the aim of enabling more people to talk about obesity. Overweight and obese people are usually made fun of and they become the centre of attention or ridicule among family, friends, office, school, or other social gatherings. Many times, patients with obesity do not reveal the physical and mental troubles they go through fearing that people might make fun of them. In such situations, their quality of life decreases and also leads them to depression.

Everyone is aware that there is a continuous increase in the cases of various diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancer and stroke. Obesity is considered one of the main causes of all these diseases and a main factor in increasing their complications. According to World Obesity Federation, currently, around 1 billion people worldwide are suffering from obesity. At the same time, by 2035, this number is expected to increase to 1.9 billion, i.e. one out of every four people may be a victim of obesity.

Significantly, the rate of obesity has increased almost three times since 1975. Currently, there is a continuous increase in the cases of obesity among people of all ages in all developed and developing countries. According to the World Health Organisation, in 2020, 39 million children under the age of 5 were found to be overweight or obese. According to UNICEF's World Obesity Atlas for 2022, over 27 million children in India will be obese in the next seven years, representing one in 10 children globally.

In such situations, the purpose of organizing World Obesity Day is not just to increase awareness about the important factors related to obesity, but also to encourage people to discuss this issue, motivate them to lose weight, improve policies in this direction, and also to give a platform to people to share their experiences.

World Obesity Day was first organized in the year 2015 as an annual campaign, which aims to encourage and support actions and activities that help people achieve and maintain a healthy weight and help address the global obesity crisis. Significantly, before the year 2020, this day was observed on October 11, but since 2020 it was shifted to March 4.