[HIGHLIGHTS] Obesity: "Only with drugs, which are not financed by the SNS, we will not be able to eliminate it"

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared obesity a disease in 1948, although it took decades before it was considered truly relevant in terms of public health by international health organizations and professionals. In 1995, the WHO began to observe greater problems of overweight than underweight in many developing countries, and it took two more decades until the American Medical Association (AMA) joined that declaration.

The most recent data collected in the National Health Survey are from 2017, when 17.1% of the population over 18 years of age was obese and 38.5% overweight.