If statistics follow a similar trend, then Mexico – including the capital – could soon be facing an overwhelming health problem.
Earlier, national figures for 2006 had shown that the prevalence of both diabetes and hypertension almost doubled when undiagnosed rates were added. But high as these rates are, the numbers could rise significantly if the proportion of patients who don’t even know that they are ill is taken into account. In 2012, central Mexico City already had the highest rates of diagnosed diabetes and hypertension in the country – respectively, 10% and 22% of the total population. Children may also suffer an increased risk of developing early markers of cardiovascular diseases and insulin resistance, as well as psychological effects. Photograph: Sipa/Rex ShutterstockĪccording to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a high body mass index is a modifiable risk factor for developing noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and even some types of cancer (endometrial, breast and colon). The consequences of these numbers could be devastating: Mexico’s health ministry has warned that if the problem is not addressed, the life expectancy of future generations will probably go down.Ī 16-year-old boy attends a medical consultation at a Mexico City hospital for symptoms related to severe morbid obesity. In 2012, more women (28%) than men (24%) were found to be obese in central Mexico City, while 35% of children aged five–11 were either overweight or obese. As hard as it is to compare these numbers with those in other Mexican cities (due to the lack of representative data for smaller cities), we can say that if Mexico City were a state, officially it would be the most overweight state in the entire country.īetween 20, adult obesity has shown a steady upward trend in the capital, where it affected 16% of the city population in 2000, 19% in 2006, and 26% in 2012. The move was prompted by reports such as the 2012 National Survey of Health and Nutrition, which found that in greater Mexico City, almost seven million people were overweight and five million people were clinically obese – a total of 56% of the city’s population of around 21 million people.
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