Obesity Alert: Youngsters Aged 18 To 24 Are At Maximum Risk

London: Young adults between the age of 18 to 24 years are at maximum risk of becoming overweight or developing obesity in the next decade of their life.

A study, conducted by researchers at University College London, University of Cambridge and Berlin Institute of Health at Charite – Universitatsmedizin Berlin, found that being a young adult is a more significant risk factor for weight gain than sex, ethnicity, geographic region or socio-economic area characteristics.

Importantly, the study — published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology — said risk of gaining weight steadily decreases with age.

Anonymised primary care health records of over 2 million adults – along with more than 9 million BMI and weight measurements — in England between 1998 and 2016 were studied to investigate the risk of weight changes at different ages and among different groups.

It was found that youngsters aged between 18 to 24 years were four times more likely to become overweight or develop obesity over next 10 years than those aged 65 to 74.

Overweight or obese young adults classed were also more likely to move to a higher BMI category — from overweight category to obesity or from non-severe obesity to severe obesity — than those classed as overweight or obese in any other age group.

For the first time, the researchers have provide people an online tool to calculate the risk of weight change over the next 1, 5, and 10 years, based on the individual’s present weight and height, age, sex, ethnicity and socio-economic area characteristics.

“Calculating the personal risk of transitioning to a higher weight category is important as the COVID-19 pandemic collides with the obesity pandemic: people are exercising less and finding it harder to eat healthy diets during lockdowns,” co-senior author Prof. Harry Hemingway said about the online tool.

Data was used from 400 primary care centres, with participants aged 18 to 74 years having their weight and BMI measured more than once between 1998 and 2016.

“Our results show clearly that age is the most important socio-demographic factor for BMI change. Young people aged 18 to 24 have the highest risk of BMI gain, compared to older people. We also found that among individuals with obesity, those aged between 35 and 54 had the highest risk of not losing weight compared to other adults,” lead author Dr Michail Katsoulis said.