The number of patients recently treated for being obese doubled in five years, data showed. According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the number of patients visiting hospitals due to obesity doubled from 14,966 in 2017 to 30,170 in 2021.

Experts speculated that reasons for the increase in the number of obese patients were poor eating habits, such as ordering unhealthy food and not exercising sufficiently.

It is known that people who suffer from obesity are at increased risk for certain diseases and health conditions compared to those who have a healthy weight, including high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, high levels of triglycerides, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, strokes, gallbladder disease and osteoarthritis.

Experts stressed that people who suffer from obesity should receive proper obesity treatment at hospitals. Obesity treatment includes lifestyle improvement such as exercise therapy, drug treatment and surgery. It is important to check the degree of obesity and any accompanying diseases and set individually customized goals, experts said.

An obesity specialist at Chung-Ang University Hospital, Lee Hye-joon, a professor of family medicine, said, “Obesity causes metabolic syndrome disease, which is a source of other diseases and related complications, so it is important to receive appropriate treatment for it.”