Improving Lifestyles, Tackling Obesity: The Health and Economic Impact of Prevention Strategies

Overweight and obesity rates have been increasing relentlessly over recent decades in allindustrialised countries, as well as in many lower income countries. OECD analyses of trends over timesupport the grim picture drawn in the international literature and so do projections of overweight andobesity rates over the next ten years. The circumstances in which people have been leading their lives overthe past 20-30 years, including physical, social and economic environments, have exerted powerfulinfluences on their overall calorie intake, on the composition of their diets and on the frequency andintensity of physical activity at work, at home and during leisure time. Many countries have beenconcerned not only about the pace of the increase in overweight and obesity, but also about inequalities intheir distribution across social groups, particularly by socio-economic status and by ethnic background.