Kent data expert plays key role in research showing child obesity rising worldwide

A data expert at the University has played a key role in new research revealing there has been a tenfold increase in childhood and adolescent obesity in over the last four decades.

Dr James Bentham, of the University’s School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science, analysed data collected as part of the study led by Imperial College London and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The research showed that, if current trends continue, more children and adolescents will be obese than moderately or severely underweight by 2022.

The study, published in The Lancet on World Obesity Day (11 October), analysed weight and height measurements from nearly 130 million people aged over five (31.5 million people aged 5 to 19, and 97.4 million aged 20 and older), the largest number of participants ever involved in an epidemiological study.

The study also looked at body mass index (BMI) and how obesity has changed worldwide from 1975 to 2016. During this period, obesity rates in the world’s children and adolescents increased from less than 1% (equivalent to five million girls and six million boys) in 1975 to nearly 6% in girls (50 million) and nearly 8% in boys (74 million) in 2016.

Combined, the number of obese five to 19-year-olds rose more than tenfold globally, from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016. An additional 213 million were overweight in 2016 but fell below the threshold for obesity.

Dr Bentham is a Lecturer in Statistics who specialises in studying the intersection between data science and public health, applying sophisticated algorithms to large datasets.