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Friday, May 18 is European Obesity Day. A day to raise the awareness of healthcare players, caregivers and patients of this issue which affects more than 650 million people worldwide.

According to WHO, 13% of adults worldwide were obese in 2014, a figure which had doubled since 1980.

Obesity is often diagnosed using the body mass index (BMI), a calculation that estimates body fat. BMI is a person’s weight (in kg) divided by the square of their height (in meters). Apart from the psychological and social discomfort generated by this chronic condition, it also leads to health problems, primarily type 2 diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea syndrome, and cardiovascular disease.

Teams from Inserm are mobilized to advance research in this field.

Nutri-score: a new nutritional aid for the consumer

A team of researchers (Inserm/ Inra/ Cnam/ Université Paris 13) led by Serge Hercberg, has revealed via a study published in the journal Nutrients  that this 5 color (5-C) nutrition label is the most effective nutritional information system for enabling consumers to recognize and compare the nutritional quality of foods, including those from “at risk” populations (older subjects, those with a low educational level, low income, poor nutritional knowledge, and overweight or obese individuals).

Following this study and as part of the 2016 Health Act, the French government recommended the deployment of Nutri-Score in order to improve product nutrition information and thereby help consumers to buy foods of better nutritional quality.

Read our press release: “The 5-colour nutritional labelling system is the most effective for consumers”

Online coaching for abdominal obesity

A study coordinated by Dr. Boris Hansel and Prof. Ronan Roussel, shows that online nutritional coaching – an automated nutritional support program – improves dietary habits and glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes and abdominal obesity.

The results show a significant increase in the dietary score in the online coaching group (+5.25 points) in comparison with the control group (-1.83) on average.

Read our press release: “Efficacy of online nutritional coaching in patients with type 2 diabetes and abdominal obesity”

And because good health also depends on good diet and exercise, consult our nutrition and health report (only available in French) on the Inserm website.

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Obesity is an excess of body fat that leads to health problems – principally type 2 diabetes and hypertension, and reduces life expectancy.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines obesity as ”abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health”.

According to WHO, 13% of adults worldwide were obese in 2014, a figure that had doubled since 1980.

Obesity is often diagnosed using the body mass index (BMI), a calculation that estimates a person’s body fat. BMI is a person’s weight (in kg) divided by the square of his or her height (in meters).

Supported by Inserm and the French national health insurance fund for salaried workers (Cnamts), the Constances cohort collates health data on more than 110,000 French people. According to initial estimates published in the French National Public Health Agency’s weekly epidemiological bulletin, nearly one in two French people are thought to be overweight and overall obesity (defined as a BMI greater than or equal to 30 kg/m2) is thought to be close to 16%.

“L’excès de poids des Français confirmé par la cohorte Constance”, published October 25, 2016.

This chronic condition not just leads to psychological and social discomfort but also health problems, principally type 2 diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea syndrome, and cardiovascular disease.

To address this rising obesity in France, the country’s Public Health Agency requested that Inserm carry out a collective expert appraisal in order to take stock of the scientific knowledge and to analyze the impact of health messages disseminated by the mass media on cognition, attitudes, intentions and behaviors in relation to nutrition.

“Action on dietary behaviours, a collective expert review by Inserm”, published April 4, 2017.

It is not just the changes in our dietary habits but also our sedentary lifestyles and decreased physical activity that play an indisputable role in the development of obesity. The team of researchers from Inserm Unit 1153 (Université Denis Diderot/Université Paris Nord/French national institute for agricultural research (Inra)), in charge of following up more than 800 children (EDEN cohort), has demonstrated that the amount of time spent playing outdoors or watching TV during early childhood is already a predictor of obesity risk later in life.

“Obésité : dès 2 ans, l’activité physique et la sédentarité sont déterminantes”, published  January 24, 2017.

Researchers at Inserm have also revealed the role played by the environment in the development of this pathology, with notably the exposure to pollutants that is thought to promote the development of additional diseases in people who are obese.

“Organic pollutants and obesity are not a good combination”, published May 9, 2017.

Read the latest Inserm news in this category:

“L’environnement social associé à la masse corporelle des enfants”, published June 21, 2016.

“Ecouter sa faim peut aider à être mince”, published April 7, 2016.

Watch POM Bio à croquer “Obésité et complications”.

Initiated by ECCA (European Cervical Cancer Association), this campaign, which will run from 24 to 30 January next, is aimed at raising awareness among the general public and health professionals about cervical cancer prevention and screening.

In France, this cancer affects nearly 3,000 women, and causes over 1,100 deaths each year.

There are two complementary levers for preventing and detecting the disease, the cervical smear test for women aged 25 to 65 years, and vaccination against HPV. According to the French National Cancer Institute (INCa), nearly 90% of cervical cancers could be prevented by carrying out cervical smear testing every three years.

Cervical cancer is mainly caused by a virus from the human papillomavirus (HPV) family, which is generally transmitted sexually. HPV 16 and 18 are responsible for 70% of cervical cancers.[2] In 10% of cases, the infection persists, and can cause lesions in the cervical mucosa that may progress to cancer.

Throughout the year, Inserm researchers are actively involved in research on cervical cancer.

One challenge for researchers is to understand how the human papillomavirus type 16 escapes the host immune response. It is against this background that the team led by Uzma Hasan at Inserm Unit 1111, “International Center for Infectiology Research” (CIRI), is examining the role of IL-1β, a cytokine that plays an essential role in the body’s inflammatory response to infections. According to their latest work, HPV 16 blocks the expression of IL-1β in cells.

Elsewhere, members of Inserm Unit 912, “Economy and Social Sciences, Health Care Systems and Societies” (SESSTIM), are interested in the perceptions and recommendations of general practitioners regarding vaccination against HPV in the context of a recent national survey. This survey shows that 72% of the physicians interviewed regularly recommend the anti-HPV vaccine. However, it emphasises that 60% of participants believe that the potential risks associated with the vaccine are still insufficiently known.

Spread of influenza remains low in metropolitan France according to the weekly bulletin of 25/11/15 from the Sentinelles network, an information system based on a network of 1,300 general practitioners, with the incidence of influenza-illness estimated at 24 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, i.e. below the epidemic threshold (149 cases per 100,000 inhabitants).

Surveillance of the virus in metropolitan France continues nonetheless, with the launch of the fifth season of GrippeNet.fr this Wednesday, 25 November. Originally launched in January 2012 by the Sentinelles network team (Inserm – UPMC) and the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS), GrippeNet.fr offers everyone living in metropolitan France, whatever his/her health status, a chance to participate in influenza surveillance anonymously and voluntarily via its website.

The data thus collected help to complement traditional surveillance systems, provide real-time information on the spread of influenza among the metropolitan population, and contribute to research aimed at achieving a better understanding of the epidemic. Over 6,000 citizens have become involved in GrippeNet.fr since the project was launched, thus becoming actively involved in influenza research and surveillance in France and Europe.

After a decade of research, a team of researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has identified Juno, a protein located on the membrane of the egg cell that enables the sperm cell to recognise it. Its presence, and that of Izumo (its counterpart on the sperm cell), is essential for fertilisation. Fusion of the egg and sperm, and subsequent formation of the embryo depend on the interactions of these proteins.

This work, published on Wednesday 16 April in the journal Nature, may contribute to improved treatments for infertility and the development of new contraceptives.

Researchers at Inserm will be pleased to answer any questions you may have about this discovery (see “Investigator contact”).

European consortium BIOSID have developed a bioartificial pancreas that can directly produce insulin in the bodies of patients with type 1 diabetes, which should be tested in humans by 2015. Trials will be conducted by the team led by Eric Renard, a researcher at Inserm Unit 661, “Institute for Functional Genomics,” at Montpellier University Hospital, and by the University of Oxford.