High blood pressure and obesity are no longer confined to wealthy countries, a new study has found. These health risks have traditionally been associated with affluence and, in 1980, they were more prevalent in countries with a higher income.
The new research, published in Circulation, shows that the average body mass index of the population is now just as high or higher in middle-income countries. For blood pressure, the situation has reversed among women, with a tendency for blood pressure to be higher in poorer countries. Researchers at Imperial College London, Harvard School of Public Health, and worldwide collaborators studied data from 199 countries between 1980 and 2008 on the prevalence of risk factors related to heart and circulatory disease. In 1980, a country’s income was correlated with the population’s average blood pressure, cholesterol and body mass index (BMI). By 2008, there was no relationship between national income and blood pressure in men, and in women blood pressure was higher in poorer countries. BMI was still lowest in the poorest countries, but higher in middleincome countries than the wealthiest countries. Cholesterol remained higher in higher-income Western countries. Fasting blood sugar, which is linked to diabetes, was only weakly related with income and affluence, but correlated with obesity. Professor Majid Ezzati, from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, who led the research, said: “This study shows that non-communicable diseases are no longer ‘diseases of affluence’. They’ve shifted from being epidemic in rich countries to become a truly international pandemic. “If current trends continue, developing countries will be confronted with a rising tide of obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure.”
