Worldwide phenotypes and transitions in obesity-related multimorbidity

体重增加太多而不长高会损害人体的不同器官和功能，并导致许多疾病。这意味着肥胖症患者往往同时患有多种疾病。这被称为多发病，对一个人的整体健康和福祉产生负面影响。在大多数国家，肥胖症已经上升了多年，但世界不同地区之间的增长程度不同。在世界某些地区，肥胖与营养不良并存。人们还认为，与身体其他部位相比，有些人更容易以腹部脂肪沉积的形式增加体重。此外，受肥胖影响的人在多大程度上也经历了其他有害的社会和生活方式因素，如吸烟，这在世界各地是不同的。由于这些原因，我们预计肥胖患者的多发病是一种复杂的现象，在世界不同地区是不同的。但是，关于受肥胖影响的人的多发病的信息非常有限，因为他们患有什么样的疾病组合以及每种组合有多常见。在低收入国家尤其如此。这项研究将使用大量来自不同国家的数千万人的体重和身高测量数据。同样的数据也有关于人们过去患有或曾经患有的不同疾病的信息，吸烟和饮酒等行为，以及血压和胆固醇等指标。这些数据没有任何可以识别个人的信息，但可以告诉我们整个国家正在发生什么。这些数据是由来自世界各地的数百名研究人员、医生和公共卫生专家汇集而成的。我们的研究团队将使用先进的方法来识别患有类似疾病的人群，并衡量每一组（或集群）人群的常见程度。例如，一些肥胖症患者可能患有糖尿病和肾脏疾病，并且过去曾中风。另一组可能患有肝病、糖尿病和背痛等，我们还将研究体重与身高相似的人中，吸烟、饮酒、血压或胆固醇等因素对多重死亡率的影响有多大。通过这些信息，我们可以更好地利用我们的预算提供最佳的医疗保健，使每个国家的人民受益，并了解肥胖如何影响多种疾病，以便我们能够改善疾病预防。这项工作涉及英国和世界其他地区的研究人员之间的合作，以便在完成时，我们每个人都能够在我们自己的地区进行这样的研究，并比较结果，以了解预防和治疗疾病的最佳方法，并改善人们的健康。

Gaining too much weight without getting taller damages different organs and functions of human body and causes many diseases. This means that people with obesity tend to have multiple diseases at the same time. This is called multimorbidity and has negative impacts on a person's overall health and wellbeing. Obesity has gone up for years in most countries, but how much it has increased differs between different regions of the world. In some parts of the world, obesity exists side by side with being undernourished. It is also believed that some people are more likely to gain weight in the form of fat that deposits in the abdomen compared to other parts of the body. Also, by how much those affected by obesity also experience other harmful social and lifestyle factors, like smoking, is different across the world. For these reasons, we expect that multimorbidity in people with obesity is a complex phenomenon that is different in different regions of the world. But there is very limited information on multimorbidity in people affected by obesity in terms of what combination of diseases they have and how common each combination is. This is especially the case in lower income countries.This research study will use a large collection of data that have measured weight and height in tens of millions of people from different countries. The same data also have information about different diseases that people have or have had in the past, behaviours like smoking and alcohol use, and measures like blood pressure and cholesterol. The data do not have any information that can identify individual persons but can tell us what is happening in whole countries. The data have been brought together by hundreds of researchers, doctors and public health experts from around the world.Our research team will use advanced methods to identify people who have similar set of diseases and measure how common each group (or cluster) of people is. For example, some people with obesity may have a combination of diabetes and kidney disease, and have had a stroke in the past. Another group may have liver disease, diabetes and back pain, and so on. We will also study how much differences in multimorbidity in people who have similar weight for their height is due factors like their smoking, alcohol use, blood pressure or cholesterol. Through this information, we can better use our budgets for providing optimal health care that will benefit people in each country, and to understand how obesity affects multiple diseases so that we can improve disease prevention. This work involves collaboration between researchers in the UK and in other regions of the world so that by the time it is completed, we will each be able to do studies like this in our own region and compare results to learn about the best ways to prevent and treat disease, and improve people's health.