The burden of obesity in Asia: Challenges in assessment, prevention and management

Overweight 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. Obesity's threat to the health and economy of the population gives urgency to meeting the problem headlong before it gets any worse. Fundamental knowledge gaps, however, constrain the institution of appropriate measures to prevent and manage this growing problem. Foremost is the paucity of national prevalence and epidemiological data in many countries in the region, coupled with a lack of uniformity in reference standards and cut‐off points. While the principles of dietary management, physical activity and behaviour modification are well known, integrating these strategies into a national policy and program in the face of competing priorities is the greatest challenge of all. This requires the collaboration of government, academia, the food industry, the private sector, NGOs and the community, with the assistance of international and bilateral aid agencies, to develop and implement such policies and programs.