NPR: Study Shatters Preconceived Notions About Urban Vs. Rural Obesity
“…A new paper in the May 8 journal Nature has shattered the preconceived notions of urban versus rural body types. More than 1,000 researchers representing the Non-Communicable Disease Coalition analyzed 2,009 studies of more than 112 million adults from 200 countries. In the most comprehensive analysis of urban/rural weight gain to date, they assessed changes in body mass index, a measure of body fat based on height and weight, between 1985 and 2017. … The researchers found that more than 55 percent of the global rise in obesity comes from rural areas. With the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is rising in rural areas as fast as or faster than in cities…” (Brink, 5/8).

Additional coverage of the study is available from Agence France-Presse, Nature, USA TODAY, and Washington Post.