Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

Globalisation and Rising Obesity in Low-Middle Income Countries

Osamudiamen Cyril Obasuyi

Advances in Research · pp. 21–29 · Published 14 Oct 2022

10.9734/air/2022/v23i6917

Abstract

While globalisation is a complicated term, evidence shows that increasing political and socio-economic connections, which is a hallmark of globalisation, dictate countries' health and economic decisions. These decisions significantly modify individuals' material circumstances and behavioural activities and lead to physical or psychological expression of disease. In 2017, the WHO reported that over 4million people died from being overweight or obese. In the last four decades, the rates of obesity, especially in children and adolescents, have quadrupled from 4%-18% globally; in 2016, over 340 million children were either overweight or obese. Non-traditional global health governance actors-whose influence in determining economic and global health decisions has risen in the last decades- have consistently furthered economic interests, which is, in part, fueling the obesity pandemic. This paper argues that the increasing economic integration from globalisation, with the aid of the current global health governance landscape, drives the current obesity pandemic by worsening the social determinants of health, perpetuating inequality, and promoting unhealthy changes in the population's economic and socio-cultural environment.

Obesity global health public health global health governance

References (36)

  1. 1 Home visits: a strategy to improve newborn survival - Authors' reply [DOI]
  2. 2 Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [DOI]
  3. 3 Worldwide trends in body-mass index, underweight, overweight, and obesity from 1975 to 2016: a pooled analysis of 2416 population-based measurement studies in 128·9 million children, adolescents, and adults [DOI]
  4. 4 Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture [DOI]
  5. 5 Television Watching and Other Sedentary Behaviors in Relation to Risk of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Women [DOI]
  6. 6 Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health. Final report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health [DOI]
  7. 7 Has Globalization Gone Too Far? [DOI]
  8. 8 Short Sleep Duration and Weight Gain: A Systematic Review [DOI]
  9. 9 Socioeconomic status and obesity in adult populations of developing countries: A review [DOI]
  10. 10 Psychosocial Stress and Change in Weight Among US Adults [DOI]
  11. 11 A global response to a global problem: the epidemic of overnutrition.
  12. 12 Governance Challenges in Global Health [DOI]
  13. 13 The growth of obesity and technological change [DOI]
  14. 14 The health impacts of globalisation: a conceptual framework [DOI]
  15. 15 The Long-Run Growth in Obesity as a Function of Technological Change [DOI]
  16. 16 The implications of trade liberalization for diet and health: a case study from Central America [DOI]
  17. 17 The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating: A Reader [DOI]
  18. 18 Defining Globalisation [DOI]
  19. 19 The Upstream Determinants of Adult Obesity [DOI]
  20. 20 Glocommodification: How the Global Consumes the Local - McDonald’s in Israel [DOI]
  21. 21 A new generation of trade policy: potential risks to diet-related health from the trans pacific partnership agreement [DOI]
  22. 22 The multiple meanings of global health governance: a call for conceptual clarity [DOI]
  23. 23 Global inequality of life expectancy due to AIDS [DOI]
  24. 24 Globalization, production, employment and poverty: debates and evidence [DOI]
  25. 25 Ideology, obesity and the social determinants of health: a critical analysis of the obesity and health relationship [DOI]
  26. 26 Globalisation and health: the need for a global vision [DOI]
  27. 27 Global Health Governance at a Crossroads.
  28. 28 Making China safe for Coke: how Coca-Cola shaped obesity science and policy in China [DOI]
  29. 29 Pitfalls of the self‐regulation of advertisements directed at children on Mexican television [DOI]
  30. 30 Exposure of Children to Unhealthy Food and Beverage Advertisements in South Africa [DOI]
  31. 31 The Impact of U.S. Free Trade Agreements on Calorie Availability and Obesity: A Natural Experiment in Canada [DOI]
  32. 32 Analysing the impact of trade agreements on national food environments: the case of Vanuatu [DOI]
  33. 33 Higher Post‐absorptive Skeletal Muscle LPL Activity in African American vs. Non‐Hispanic White Pre‐menopausal Women [DOI]
  34. 34 Global Health in Transition [DOI]
  35. 35 The Long-Run Growth in Obesity as a Function of Technological Change [DOI]
  36. 36 Globalisation and the Politics of Global Health [DOI]

Cited by 6

Network meta-analysis and dose–response analysis of exercise on sleep quality and BMI in obese populations

Hongfei Wang, Jiaxin Wang, Lunan Zhao · Frontiers in Public Health · 2026

AVALIAÇÃO DO CONHECIMENTO DE USUÁRIOS DA ATENÇÃO PRIMÁRIA SOBRE DOENÇAS CARDIOMETABÓLICAS E ESTILO DE VIDA

Zulmira Marques de Sousa Bezerra, Jennara Cândido do Nascimento, Antonio Aglailton Oliveira Silva · O Cuidado integral em Enfermagem para a Saúde e o bem-estar humano · 2025

Nutrition Challenges in Less Developed Regions: Innovative Solutions

Yi Zhang, Jiamiao Hu · Healthy Food for Children · 2025

Showing 4 of 6 known citations — external sources report more than can currently be individually listed.

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

52

Page views

0

PDF downloads

9

Outbound clicks

6

Citations

Views over time

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.