Obesity and Cancer in the UAE: A Systematic Review of Lifestyle Factors and Cancer Risk

Abstract

Obesity and its associated metabolic and behavioral factors are becoming increasingly important in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the cancer burden is rising. However, evidence summarizing the relationship between obesity, lifestyle factors, and cancer outcomes in the UAE remains limited. This review examined associations between high body mass index (BMI), lifestyle factors, and cancer outcomes in UAE populations or UAE-specific estimates derived from wider analyses. PubMed and Google Scholar were searched for English-language publications from 2015 onward. Eligible publications reported UAE data on obesity, BMI, diet, physical inactivity, smoking, diabetes, metabolic factors, and cancer outcomes. Observational studies, reviews, modeling studies, and Global Burden of Disease (GBD) analyses were included. Study characteristics, exposures, cancer types, and principal findings were extracted and synthesized narratively. Thirty-seven publications met the inclusion criteria. High BMI was most consistently associated with an increased burden of uterine/endometrial, ovarian, colorectal, and pancreatic and kidney cancer. UAE-specific evidence also linked obesity-related metabolic factors with breast, liver, and gastric cancer outcomes, while evidence for prostate and cervical cancer was less direct. GBD analyses reported an age-standardized pancreatic cancer disability-adjusted life year rate attributable to high BMI of 47.5 per 100,000 and an increase in high-BMI-attributable ovarian cancer mortality from 0.83 to 3.73 per 100,000 between 1990 and 2021. High BMI and related metabolic and lifestyle factors were consistently associated with cancer burden in the UAE. The clearest patterns were observed for gynecological, colorectal, pancreatic, and kidney cancers, although much of the evidence was derived from population modeling. These findings highlight the need to strengthen obesity prevention strategies and metabolic strategies, improve metabolic risk management, and conduct prospective UAE-based research to better inform the national cancer prevention and control program.