Introduction: Obesity is a serious health problem in nearly all regions of Europe. During the last four decades, the percentage of obese people increased four times among men and twice among women, reaching a global epidemic scale as the biggest health-related issue in the developed and developing countries.
Objective: The aim was to assess the epidemiological situation of obesity, according to gender among adults in Europe, compared with other regions and selected worldwide countries, as well as to devise a forecast for the near future based on analysis results.
Material and methods: An overview was performed of the World Health Organization (WHO) statistical database in 1999-2016, concerning obesity prevalence among people over the age of 20 across 28 countries of the European Union. A forecast for the years 2020 and 2030 was prepared by evaluation of gradients for trendline equations. Moreover, some of the world regions, as well as individual countries, five per region, were collated and analyzed to prepare the forecast.
Results: The percentage of obese people in the countries of the European Union continues to increase every year. The dynamics of obesity growth in Europe is greater for men than for women (3.09% per year vs. 1.92% per year). With the growth rate remaining at the estimated level, in 2030 there will probably be more obese men (38.1%) than women (32.7%) in Poland, and in Europe likewise - 36.6% and 32.0%, respectively.
Conclusions: Obesity has become a major epidemiological problem and an undisputable health problem not only in Poland and other European countries, but worldwide.
Keywords: Europe; adults; epidemiology; evaluation studies; obesity.