Photo taken on Jan 30, 2023 shows a logo of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

MANILA - Pacific island countries account for nine of the top 10 places in the world with the highest prevalence of obesity among women and men aged 20 and above, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday.

In the Pacific, overweight, obesity, and diet-related non-communicable diseases "have progressively increased" in every age group over recent decades and "have become a major cause of early death and disability," the WHO said in a press release, citing a recent research in the Lancet.

More than 1 billion people in the world are now living with obesity, the agency said, adding that worldwide, obesity among adults has more than doubled since 1990, and has quadrupled among children and adolescents aged from five to 19.

The data also showed that 43 percent of adults were overweight in 2022.

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The agency warned that being overweight or obese increases the risk of developing non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.