COVID-19 pandemic… what about the obesity and inactivity “pandemics”?

Abstract

With South Africa and the rest of the globe in lockdown for COVID-19, every citizen is finally grasping the meaning and extent of the word “pandemic”. Yet, there are other “silent pandemics” that receive insufficient media attention, viz. the obesity “pandemic”¹ and the inactivity “pandemic”, which were first described in 2012.² The prevalence of obesity is rising even amongst the youth³ and even without the added factor of being confined indoors, global physical inactivity is rising.⁴ However, has the economic impact of inactivity been considered? Global obesity and physical inactivity’s contribution towards chronic diseases and premature death is estimated to have a cost of up to $145 billion annually, as estimated in 2013.⁵ Furthermore, a quarter of  the world’s adults (1.4 billion) are susceptible to physical inactivity-related diseases.⁴ Kohl et al. reported that up to 10% of global non-communicable diseases (NCDs) deaths result from physical inactivity, whereas the percentage increases to 30% for specific disease categories such as heart disease.² Millions of global deaths from NCDs could have been circumvented if people were passably physically active.²