Opinion | To better fight Covid-19, Asia can no longer afford to ignore obesity

With the world’s attention turned toward the coronavirus pandemic, the issue of obesity as a rising burden took a back seat in the first half of the year. Recent research has shown, however, that we can no longer afford to ignore obesity and its associated conditions as they are worsening the impact of Covid-19 on patients. In light of this, the global health care community has come to recognise combating obesity as a way to stave off some of the worst effects of the virus.

In Malaysia, a staggering 64 per cent of males and 65 per cent of females are either obese or overweight and a similarly worrying trend has been observed in other Southeast Asian countries. Between 2010 and 2014, the incidence of obesity in Indonesia and Vietnam increased three times as fast as that observed in the US and Britain.

Obesity rates have also been on the rise in China. Between 2004-2014, the incidence of obesity tripled, affecting around 14 per cent of adults by 2014. The data from India is equally alarming. The country’s obesity rates are increasing at a faster pace than the world average, growing from 6.4 per cent to 14.9 per cent in women between 1975-2014. This has been accompanied by an escalating burden of chronic diseases, which has the national health care system struggling to keep up.

While the prevalence of obesity is also growing elsewhere in the world, there are important reasons for paying special attention to Asian countries. Certain Asian populations have a higher percentage of body fat compared to Caucasians of the same age, gender and body mass index (BMI), which places them at greater risk of developing obesity-related morbidities such as Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular conditions.