A massive study that looked at global health has found some interesting trends. The study, which will be published in three papers in the Lancet, had over 100 collaborators and used data from 199 countries and regions. One trend they found is that the world is getting fatter. From 1980 to 2008, the average BMI for men rose in all but eight countries; for women, it rose in all but 19. During that same time frame, obesity increased from 4.8% to 9.8% for men, and from 7.9% to 13.8% for women. The data revealed that men and women on the Pacific island of Nauru are the heaviest groups in the world.
Another trend is that blood pressure has been coming down in recent decades. Worldwide, blood pressure has fallen from 131 to 128 for men, and 127 to 124 for women. Researchers found that significant progress has been made in industrialized nations. Treatment of hypertension and efforts to limit the amount of salt in the diet has led to huge reductions. The U.S. and Australia now have some of the lowest average blood pressures in the world. Among industrialized countries, American men and South Korean women have the lowest blood pressure. American women have the fourth lowest. In contrast, blood pressure is highest in the Baltic countries and in east and west Africa.
Looking at cholesterol levels, there has been little change over the past three decades. For men it's 179 milligrams per deciliter and 184 for women (the target for healthful cholesterol is under 200). However, although it has remained pretty stable, there have been some countries that have experienced drops in cholesterol and some that have experienced increases. The researchers found a trend of cholesterol levels falling in "developed" countries and rising in "developing" countries. In Europe, North America, and Australia, cholesterol levels fell, as a result of cholesterol-lowering medicine and some dietary changes. The U.S., Canada, Sweden, and Finland have achieved large decreases in average cholesterol over the past 20 years. Conversely, cholesterol rose in East and Southeast Asia. This is probably a result of additional animal fat in the diet that comes with greater wealth. Icelandic men and women from Greenland have the highest cholesterol in the world.
The epidemiologist that headed the project concluded, "Our results show that overweight and obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol are no longer Western problems or problems of wealthy nations. Their presence has shifted towards low- and middle-income countries, making them global problems." Cardiovascular disease now kills more people than any other cause of death. A major question that has risen from this project is whether Asian countries, with their rising cholesterol and blood pressure, will experience a heart disease epidemic like Western nations did in the post-WWII decades -- or whether these public health problems can be avoided through behavior change, medical treatment, and public health campaigns. Some epidemiologists are skeptical, as the lessons of history are not encouraging: often health problems aren't addressed until they rise to high levels.
The head researcher of the project also added that a study looking at rising blood sugar and rates of diabetes worldwide is underway. (Full Story)
Thousands of workers in Egypt, from a variety of different sectors, have gone on strike to demand better pay, benefits, and working conditions. More than 5,000 workers went on strike in Suez, and smaller strikes involving hundreds of workers haven taken place in cities across Egypt, including in Cairo. Thousands of others have held protests on company grounds. It's believed that these strikes will add further momentum to the anti-government protests. The Egyptian government had already offered a 15% pay raise for all public workers, effective in April. However, there are some doubts as to whether the promise will be honored. (Full Story)
The Pew Research Center has found that the political unrest in Egypt is the biggest international news story in the past four years (it was four years ago that the Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism first began collecting data for their News Coverage Index). It's also the fourth biggest story of any kind (behind two weeks of the 2008 presidential campaign and the Tucson shooting spree that happened in January). Between January 31 and February 6, 56% of news stories were devoted to the situation in Egypt. The next most-covered international event was the war in Iraq from September 9 to September 14, which had 43% of news stories. The coverage of Egypt also surpassed the coverage of the conflict in Afghanistan, the protests in Iran, and the earthquake in Haiti. (Full Story)
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