Giving Compass' Take:

• Wellcome shares the results of a study on global weight trends including the number of children who are under- and over-weight. 

• How can funders reduce the number of over- and under-weight children? What are the long-term implications of childhood weight issues? 

• Learn about the state of global nutrition, including funding opportunities. 

Childhood obesity rates have risen tenfold in the past four decades, while numbers of those who are underweight remain worryingly high, a study reveals.

The Wellcome-funded study, published in The Lancet and led by Imperial College London and the World Health Organization (WHO), looked at how obesity has changed worldwide from 1975 to 2016.

It analyzed weight and height measurements from nearly 130 million people aged over five – the largest, most global study to look at obesity in children and adolescents. More than 1,000 researchers contributed to the study.

The study found the number of obese 5- to 19-year-olds has risen from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016.

The authors say that if current trends continue then by 2022 more 5 to 19 year olds will be obese than will be moderately or severely underweight.

Read the full article about obesity from Wellcome.