More people around the world experience risk factors associated with metabolism such as high systolic blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, body mass index, LDL cholesterol and kidney dysfunction. Changing lifestyles and an aging population are to blame, according to the authors of the report.
The report detailed the latest findings from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 and was published Thursday in The Lancet.
Between 2020 and 2021, there was a 49.4% increase in the number of global disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) linked to metabolism-related risk factors. DALYs are defined as lost years of healthy life due to poor health and early death. Over this period, ill health in people between the ages of 15 and 49 on the rise was attributable to a high BMI and high blood sugar. Metabolic risk factors, such as high systolic blood pressure and high LDL cholesterol were also in the top 10 risk factors for people in this age group.
“Though metabolic in nature, developing these risk factors can often be influenced by various lifestyle factors, especially among younger generations,”Michael Brauer, an affiliate professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said in a statement. “They also are indicative of an aging population that is more likely to develop these conditions with time. Targeting the reduction of preventable, noncommunicable diseases through modifiable risk factors presents an enormous opportunity to pre-emptively alter the trajectory of global health through policy and education.”
The report estimated the disease burden of 88 risk factors and their associated health outcomes for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2021.
Particulate matter air pollution, smoking, and low birthweight and short gestation were also among the largest contributors to DALYs in 2021, with considerable variation across ages, sexes and locations.
“With increasing exposure to risk factors such as high blood sugar, high blood pressure, low physical activity, and diet high in sugar-sweetened beverages — there is an urgent need for interventions focused on obesity and metabolic syndromes,” Greg Roth, director for the program in cardiovascular health metrics and adjunct associate professor of health metrics sciences at the Institute, said in the same statement.
The disease burden that could be attributed to smoking went up moderately due to aging of the population, even though people’s exposure to this risk factor declined.
