One in every five people in Turkey suffers from obesity, a new report published Wednesday by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) suggested.
The health report that relied on 2016 figures said that 19.6 percent of the Turkish population was considered obese from a medical standpoint.
The data was collected after calculating the body mass index with the height and weight figures of adults 15 years of age and older living in Turkey.
Compared to 2014, the prevalence of obesity slightly decreased to 19.6 percent from 19.9 percent.
The report also revealed that 23.9 percent of women in Turkey had developed obesity, while 30.1 percent were identified as pre-obese.
This obesity rate was observed to a lesser extent among the male population, with 15.2 percent being obese and 38.6 percent facing a high risk of future obesity.
A newly published report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) also suggested that one million people in Turkey were at risk of becoming obese.
Obesity has become a severe health problem worldwide, and it can often have side effects including heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
Turkish Health Ministry figures previously showed that over 30 percent of all adults of 19 years of age and older in Turkey were classified as “extremely overweight.”
