Obesity and longevity: The retrospective longitudinal analysis of international data

Objectives Due to the economic growth at the end of the 20th century people in low-income countries live longer, but still spend on food most of their income, and suffer from the low food quality. These countries, as well as affluent countries demonstrate rising prevalence of obesity, which is a risk factor for bad health and increased mortality. The interplay of longevity and obesity at different levels of economic development is not clear. Design We used World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Global Burden of Disease project data on population size, longevity, prevalence of obesity, and income as Gross domestic product per capita adjusted to purchasing power in international dollars. Results After we stratified countries by income, we found that there is a long-term increase in life expectancy with an increase in the prevalence of obesity in countries of all income levels. There is a higher prevalence of obesity in poor countries than in the affluent countries at the equal life expectancy. Conclusions The economic growth in all countries lead to increase in length of life and is associated with the increase of obesity prevalence. In poor countries the access to food and the food quality is limited as well as customs of consumption are different. It leads to the higher prevalence of overweight and obesity at similar level of length of life. It may be the cause of the slower progress in life expectancy. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement Nothing to disclose ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Not Applicable The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: This study is not needed the IRB review I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Not Applicable I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Not Applicable I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Not Applicable Data used for the analysis are in public domain