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Obesity is a chronic relapsing condition affecting a rapidly increasing number of people worldwide. The United Nations has stated that universal health coverage is an essential element of the globally-agreed sustainable development goals. This article provides a preliminary report of a survey of relevant health professionals and other interest groups on the readiness of health systems to provide obesity treatment services. Interviews and questionnaires were completed by 274 respondents from a total of 68 low, middle and high income countries. Respondents in the majority of countries stated that there were professional guidelines for obesity treatment, but that there was a lack of adequate services, especially in lower income countries, and in rural areas of most countries. Lack of treatment was attributed to a broad range of issues including: no clear care pathways from primary care to secondary services; absent or limited secondary services in some regions; lack of trained multi-disciplinary support professionals; potentially high costs to patients; long waiting times for surgery; and stigma experienced by patients within the health care services. Defining obesity as a disease may help to overcome stigma and may also help to secure better funding streams for treatment services. However, the survey found that few countries were ready to accept this definition. Furthermore, until countries fully adopt and implement obesity prevention policies the need for treatment will continue to rise while the necessary conditions for treatment will remain inadequate.

Background Overweight/obesity is associated with significant morbidity, mortality and costs. Weight loss has been shown to reverse some of these effects, reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). We aimed to determine potential monies available, from an English National Health Service perspective, for weight loss interventions to be cost-effective in the prevention of CVD. Methods A Markov model was developed, populated with overweight/obese individuals from the Health Survey for England aged 30-74 years, free of pre-existing CVD, and with available risk factor information to calculate CVD risk. All individuals were free of CVD at baseline and with each annual cycle, could transition to other health states of primary CVD, secondary CVD or death according to transition probabilities for a maximum period of ten years, or until death. Utilities, costs and the effects of weight loss on CVD risk factors were applied. The potential monies available for CVD prevention strategies provided the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio met UK arbitrary limits of between £20 000 and £30 000 was determined. Results Applying the effects of weight loss on CVD risk factors prevented 12 CVD events and saved 12 quality-adjusted life years over 10 years per 1 000 individuals. £27-£39 was available per person per year for up to 10 years when meeting the UK arbitrary limits. Conclusions Individual annual financial allowances for weight loss interventions to be considered cost-effective is relatively low; however, as a large proportion of the population is affected, wide cheap societal interventions are important.

Overweight and obesity increase the risks of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD). This has been shown to be reversed with weight loss. A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to determine the effect of weight loss in the primary prevention of CVD. PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library databases were searched electronically through to May 2013. Randomized controlled trials assessing weight loss and cardiovascular risk factors and outcomes were included. A random effects meta-analysis, with sub-group analyses for degree of weight loss, and age were performed. Because few studies reported clinical outcomes of CVD, analyses were limited to cardiovascular risk factors (83 studies). Interventions that caused any weight loss significantly reduced systolic blood pressure (-2.68 mmHg, 95% CI -3.37, -2.11), diastolic blood pressure (-1.34 mmHg, 95% CI -1.71, -0.97), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (-0.20 mmol L(-1) , 95% CI -0.29, -0.10), triglycerides (-0.13 mmol L(-1) , 95% CI -0.22, -0.03), fasting plasma glucose (-0.32 mmol L(-1) , 95% CI -0.43, -0.22) and haemoglobin A1c(-0.40%, 95% CI -0.52, -0.28) over 6-12 months. Significant changes remained after 2 years for several risk factors. Similar results were seen in sub-group analyses. Interventions that cause weight loss are effective at improving cardiovascular risk factors at least for 2 years. © 2016 World Obesity.

The epidemic of obesity and overweight poses a major challenge to the prevention of chronic noncommunicable diseases throughout the world. In some developing countries it presents a double burden alongside enduring problems of undernutrition. Current IOTF estimates suggest that at least 1.1 billion adults are overweight including 312 million who are obese. The prevalence of obesity has doubled or even risen threefold in less than two decades, while in children this is rising at an even faster rate in some regions of Europe to levels of up to 36% in parts of Italy and elsewhere. The comparative burden of disease due to raised body mass index is among the top five leading risk factors in both developed and low mortality developing countries. When viewed in conjunction with the burden of raised cholesterol and hypertension, these components of the metabolic syndrome form the major cause of mortality and disease in Europe and are guaranteed to increase with the rising trend in overweight and obesity while amplifying the burden of cardiovascular disease. The increase in childhood obesity will, unchecked, accentuate the rise in early adult type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.A fundamental policy shift is required to widen responsibility for the prevention of diet, activity and weight-related ill health across the whole of Europe's population. Only such a comprehensive approach offers any realistic prospect of averting a public health catastrophe for Europe and indeed for the whole world.

The recent World Health Organization (WHO) agreement on the standardized classification of overweight and obese, based on body mass index (BMI), allows a comparable analysis of prevalence rates worldwide for the first time. In Asia, however, there is a demand for a more limited range for normal BMIs (i.e., 18.5 to 22.9 kg/m(2) rather than 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m(2)) because of the high prevalence of comorbidities, particularly diabetes and hypertension. In children, the International Obesity Task-Force age-, sex-, and BMI-specific cutoff points are increasingly being used. We are currently evaluating BMI data globally as part of a new millennium analysis of the Global Burden of Disease. WHO is analyzing data in terms of 20 or more principal risk factors contributing to the primary causes of disability and lost lives in the 191 countries within the WHO. The prevalence rates for overweight and obese people are different in each region, with the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, and North America having higher prevalence rates. In most countries, women show a greater BMI distribution with higher obesity rates than do men. Obesity is usually now associated with poverty, even in developing countries. Relatively new data suggest that abdominal obesity in adults, with its associated enhanced morbidity, occurs particularly in those who had lower birth weights and early childhood stunting. Waist measurements in nationally representative studies are scarce but will now be needed to estimate the full impact of the worldwide obesity epidemic.

Background Cardiovascular diseases and their nutritional risk factors-including overweight and obesity, elevated blood pressure, and cholesterol-are among the leading causes of global mortality and morbidity, and have been predicted to rise with economic development. Methods and Findings We examined age-standardized mean population levels of body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, and total cholesterol in relation to national income, food share of household expenditure, and urbanization in a cross-country analysis. Data were from a total of over 100 countries and were obtained from systematic reviews of published literature, and from national and international health agencies. BMI and cholesterol increased rapidly in relation to national income, then flattened, and eventually declined. BMI increased most rapidly until an income of about I$5,000 (international dollars) and peaked at about I$12,500 for females and I$17,000 for males. Cholesterol's point of inflection and peak were at higher income levels than those of BMI (about I$8,000 and I$18,000, respectively). There was an inverse relationship between BMI/cholesterol and the food share of household expenditure, and a positive relationship with proportion of population in urban areas. Mean population blood pressure was not correlated or only weakly correlated with the economic factors considered, or with cholesterol and BMI. Conclusions When considered together with evidence on shifts in income-risk relationships within developed countries, the results indicate that cardiovascular disease risks are expected to systematically shift to low-income and middle-income countries and, together with the persistent burden of infectious diseases, further increase global health inequalities. Preventing obesity should be a priority from early stages of economic development, accompanied by population-level and personal interventions for blood pressure and cholesterol.

Background Cardiovascular diseases and their nutritional risk factors—including overweight and obesity, elevated blood pressure, and cholesterol—are among the leading causes of global mortality and morbidity, and have been predicted to rise with economic development. Methods and Findings We examined age-standardized mean population levels of body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, and total cholesterol in relation to national income, food share of household expenditure, and urbanization in a cross-country analysis. Data were from a total of over 100 countries and were obtained from systematic reviews of published literature, and from national and international health agencies. BMI and cholesterol increased rapidly in relation to national income, then flattened, and eventually declined. BMI increased most rapidly until an income of about I$5,000 (international dollars) and peaked at about I$12,500 for females and I$17,000 for males. Cholesterol's point of inflection and peak were at higher income levels than those of BMI (about I$8,000 and I$18,000, respectively). There was an inverse relationship between BMI/cholesterol and the food share of household expenditure, and a positive relationship with proportion of population in urban areas. Mean population blood pressure was not correlated or only weakly correlated with the economic factors considered, or with cholesterol and BMI. Conclusions When considered together with evidence on shifts in income–risk relationships within developed countries, the results indicate that cardiovascular disease risks are expected to systematically shift to low-income and middle-income countries and, together with the persistent burden of infectious diseases, further increase global health inequalities. Preventing obesity should be a priority from early stages of economic development, accompanied by population-level and personal interventions for blood pressure and cholesterol., Cardiovascular diseases, traditionally thought of as diseases of affluence, are likely to become a substantial public health in low-income and middle-income countries.

EDITOR—Cases of children showing type 2 diabetes have been linked to the rising prevalence of paediatric obesity. We are concerned that the true number of children with this form of diabetes may be far larger than paediatricians realise. A recent representative survey in England found 18% of schoolchildren to be overweight and …

Space-borne gravitational wave missions like LISA require Drag-Free Contorl (DFC) systems to control the motion of a constellation of spaceraft to high positional accuracy so that Michelson interferometers of vast scales can be implemented and used to detect gravitational waves. The spacecraft will continually experience forces and torques due to external disturbances, resulting in positional perturbations. Therefore the development of a DFC system is essential to stabilize the spacecraft to a specified tolerance. Prior to such space-borne gravitational wave missions, a technology demonstrator mission, such as the proposed ODIE, ELITE or SMART-2, is needed to test the feasibility of drag-free spacecraft technology. This paper discusses the requirements of the hardware needed to implement a DFC system. Contorl-loop models ahve been develoepd to model the DFC system's dynamic behavior, which enabled quantification of its performance. Results show that if an accelerometer noise level of 1×10-12 m Hz-0.5 and thruster noise level of 1×10-8 N Hz-0.5 can be realized then the ODIE acceleration budget can easily be met.