IJE Advance Access originally published online on December 8, 2005
International Journal of Epidemiology 2006 35(1):60-67; doi:10.1093/ije/dyi255
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Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association © The Author 2005; all rights reserved.
Commentary |
Commentary: Understanding the epidemiology of overweight and obesity—a real global public health concern
1 Department of Family and Community Medicine, Center on Social Disparities in Health, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
2 Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
* Corresponding author. Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516, USA. E-mail: popkin@unc.edu
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Introduction |
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Campos and his collaborators raise some useful and important questions about the way to understand the impact of overweight and obesity on health.1 Especially, bringing attention to some of the complexities in overweight/obesity and health relationships and covert financial interests involved in obesity research and related promotion activities is noteworthy. At the same time, however, they ignore some basic pathways linking dietary and physical activity patterns to weight dynamics to health. Furthermore, they selectively examine the literature and, as is easily done, arrive at the conclusion that there is much ado about nothing in the ‘obesity epidemic or pandemic’. A different reading of the way to study in a causal manner the role of these factors as they affect health provides us with a very different conclusion.
Rapidly changing diets and reduced physical activity levels have led to a marked increase in the prevalence of diet-related chronic diseases in both
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Global increases in weight are real! |
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Health consequences of obesity are real and serious! |
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Systematic reviews of the literature show clear links between obesity and adverse health and economic outcomes! |
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Weight loss brings health benefits! |
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Financial interests and the obesity epidemic |
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Discussion |
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