Volume 11 Supplement 7

▪ Keyword : Asia, challenges in assessment, obesity, overweight, prevention

▪ Content : Οverweight and obesity have started to emerge as a significant public health problem in Asia. As a whole, the situation has arisen from the changing dietary pattern towards energy-dense and high fat diets, together with a more sedentary lifestyle arising from increasing urbanization.

▪ Keyword : ACTIVATE, childhood, obesity, prevention

▪ Content : ACTIVATE was initiated in 1999 by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation and the International Life Sciences Institute Center for Health Promotion.

▪ Keyword : body mass index, epidemiology, Japan, national nutrition survey, obesity

▪ Content : Obesity has become a public health problem in Japan. The National Nutrition Survey (2000) showed prevalence of preobese (body mass index: 25–29.9 kg/m2) and obesity (≥ 30 kg/m2) was 24.5% and 2.3%, respectively, in males, and 17.8% and 3.4%, respectively, in females aged 20 years and over.

▪ Keyword : Asia-Oceania, classification, criteria, Japan, obesity

▪ Content : In 1997 when WHO initiated the formation of the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF), the Task Force proposed the cut-offs for overweight and obesity as BMI 25 and BMI 30, respectively. If we accept the criteria of BMI ≥ 30 to indicate obesity, it would appear that the prevalence of obesity in Japan of less than 3% has changed little during the last 40 years, and we cannot explain the rapid increase in incidence of obesityassociated chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia.

▪ Keyword : health campaigns, Mega Country Health Promotion, obesity, WHO

▪ Content : In December 2001, the World Health Organization launched the Mega Country Health Promotion Network. This network includes the countries with populations of 100 million or more. The 11 countries that are part of this network account for more than 60% of the world’s population.

▪ Keyword : Asia, body mass index, chronic energy deficiency, consequence, Food and Agriculture Organization

▪ Content : Undernutrition and hunger have always formed the foundation of the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) mandate. Working in collaboration with the International Dietary Energy Consultative Group (IDECG), FAO began to examine both appropriate cut-off points of the body mass index (BMI) at the lower end of the spectrum and the functional consequences of low BMI (<16.0 = Category III Chronic Energy Deficiency (CED); 16.0 – 16.9 = Category II CED; 17.0 – 18.4 = Category I CED).

▪ Keyword : body mass index, Chinese adults, obesity, overweight, waist circumference

▪ Content : For prevention of obesity in the Chinese population, it is necessary to define the optimal range of healthy weight and the appropriate cut-off points of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference for Chinese adults.

▪ Keyword : adult, Asia, assessment, children, methodology, obesity, overweight

▪ Content : The dramatic changes in the lifestyle of many Asian communities, and the resultant changes in the food and nutrition issues facing the communities in the region have been documented by various investigators. Health authorities and researchers have given greater attention to the problem of overweight and obesity.

▪ Keyword : adolescent, childhood, economic consequences, obesity, physical, psycho-social

▪ Content : Obesity, increasingly recognized as a chronic disease, is associated with physical, psychosocial and economic consequences to society. With the burgeoning global epidemic, health care workers must rally together to understand, treat and prevent obesity and its complications.

▪ Keyword : economic, health, impact, obesity, social

▪ Content : Obesity has been identified as an epidemic in the United States for more than two decades and yet the numbers of overweight and obese adults and children continue to grow. Currently, the rates of both overweight and obesity in the US are 61% and 14% in adults and children, respectively. Among US adults aged 20–74 years, the prevalence of overweight (defined as BMI 25.0–29.9) has increased from 33% in 1980 to 35% of the population in 1999. In the same population, obesity (defined as BMI ≥ 30) has nearly doubled from approximately 15% in 1980 to an estimated 27% in 1999.

▪ Keyword : Asia, energy expenditure, malnutrition, nutrition, obesity

▪ Content : Obesity is associated with devastating health and fiscal consequences in countries where it is epidemic. It is beholden on us all to try to prevent obesity emerging in countries where its prevalence is starting to increase.

▪ Keyword : environmental determinants, lifestyle behaviours, obesity, overweight, social change

▪ Content : Obesity prevalence has increased dramatically in parallel with rapid economic development and rising standards of living around the world. There is growing recognition that this ‘epidemic’ of overweight is being driven by environmental factors that affect our eating and physical activity behaviours.

▪ Keyword : eating behaviour, epidemiology, physical activity

▪ Content : Obesity is a serious and growing public health problem affecting developed and developing countries. It is generally agreed that the causes of the current obesity epidemic are not genetic in origin, but are the result of changes in the environments in which we live.