In 2015, 8.4% of the disease burden in Australia was due to overweight and obesity, making it the second leading risk factor contributing to disease burden after tobacco use.
These estimates reflect the amount of burden that could have been avoided if all people in Australia were in the normal weight range (body mass index of 20 to 25).
Overweight & obesity contributed to the burden of 30 diseases including: 17 types of cancer, 4 cardiovascular diseases, 3 musculoskeletal conditions, type 2 diabetes, dementia, asthma and chronic kidney disease (see Supplementary tables).
How much burden was attributable to overweight and obesity?
Overweight & obesity contributed 54% of the type 2 diabetes burden, 44% of the osteoarthritis burden, 40% of the chronic kidney disease burden, 25% of the coronary heart disease burden, 24% of the asthma burden and 21% of the stroke burden.
Note that the following visualisation displays the top 10 linked diseases due to overweight & obesity.