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Multicenter Study
. 2025 Jul;27(7):3676-3685.
doi: 10.1111/dom.16389. Epub 2025 Apr 8.

Prevalence of overweight and obesity in adults from the Middle East: A large-scale population-based study

Elamin Abdelgadir  1   2 , Fauzia Rashid  1   2 , Alaaeldin Bashier  1 , Marwan Zidan  3 , Barbara McGowan  4 , Fatheya Alawadi  1   2
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Prevalence of overweight and obesity in adults from the Middle East: A large-scale population-based study

Elamin Abdelgadir et al. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2025 Jul.

Abstract

Aims: Although there are population-level estimates of the prevalence of overweight and obesity (OAO), there are few direct epidemiological surveys of OAO prevalence at scale.

Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional, multi-centre, population-based study of all adults aged >18 years attending the Dubai Academic Health Corporation (DAHC) between January 2018 and August 2023. OAO was defined according to WHO standards or modified WHO cut points for individuals from WHO South-East Asian Region (SEAR) countries. Clinical obesity, defined according to new Lancet Commission diagnostic criteria, was estimated using ICD-10 codes corresponding to end-organ dysfunction.

Results: Of 440 590 participants, 48.5% were female, 52% were aged 19-39 years and 37.1% were UAE nationals. 63.4% of the population were living with OAO. Significantly more UAE nationals (68.3%) were living with OAO than nationals from SEAR countries (59.7%, p < 0.001) or elsewhere (63.6%, respectively, p < 0.001). Significantly more females than males were living with obesity (30.4% vs. 25.9%, p < 0.001). About a half of female UAE nationals aged ≥40 years were living with obesity, about one in five of whom had class 2 or class 3 obesity. Using modified ethnicity-specific thresholds increased the overall proportion of people living with obesity in the UAE from 28.0% to 35.8%. About a third of individuals with a body mass index ≥40 kg/m2 also had signs or symptoms of ongoing organ dysfunction classifiable as clinical obesity.

Conclusions: This is the largest epidemiological study to provide direct prevalence data on OAO at this scale in the region and one of the largest globally. Using standard WHO cut points to define OAO may severely underestimate the prevalence of clinically actionable obesity in individuals of Southeast Asian ethnicity. This first application of new diagnostic criteria of clinical obesity suggests that some individuals may be disqualified from therapy who might otherwise benefit from a patient-centric approach.

Keywords: GCC; MENA; Middle East; UAE; United Arab Emirates; adult; lancet commission; obesity; overweight; overweight and obesity; sex.

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Conflict of interest statement

EA has received an unrestricted research grant from Novo Nordisk, consulting fee from Astra Zeneca, Novo Nordisk, and Boehringer Ingelheim and honoraria for lectures and presentations and support for attending meetings from Lilly, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bayer and Merck. FA has received honoraria for lectures and presentations and support for attending meetings from AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk and Boehringer Ingelheim. BM has received consulting fees from Lilly, Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca and Boehringer Ingelheim; honoraria for lectures and presentations from Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Janssen; support for attending meetings from Lilly and Novo Nordisk; has stock in Reset Health; and is a board member of ISE, co‐chair of the EASO obesity task force, and chair of OHC‐UK; FR has received honoraria for lectures and presentations from Novo Nordisk, Bayer, and Merck and support for attending meetings from Novo Nordisk and Abbott. All other authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The overall distribution of body mass index categories across the study population.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Distribution of body mass index categories according to sex, ethnicity and age group.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Distribution of overweight and/or obesity between sexes according to age group and ethnicity. (A) Total population, (B) UAE nationals, (C) individuals of South‐East Asian Region (SEAR) ethnicity, (D) individuals of other (non‐UAE, non‐SEAR) ethnicity.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
The overall distribution of body mass index categories across the study population after applying WHO Asia‐Pacific Perspective cut points to the South‐East Asian Region (SEAR) population and the usual WHO cut points to the remaining population.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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