Childhood malnutrition was the number one risk factor for early death in 1990, but now it ranks behind obesity.

Obesity and diseases linked to it are now killing more people than hunger, according to findings of a major global health study by the Lancet magazine, based in the UK.

It found that the average lifespan for women is highest in Japan – at 86 – and lowest in Haiti at 44.

Men in Iceland live to 80 on average, but in Haiti the figure is just 33.

Heart attacks and strokes are still the biggest killers – accounting for one in four deaths worldwide.

Alcohol abuse is on the rise – killing a record number of people, particularly young men in Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

The report labels Latin America “the homicide belt” as a rising number of men are being killed by violence.

In developed countries in Asia, suicide has become a leading cause of death.

And whereas childhood malnutrition was the number one risk factor for early death in 1990, it is now down to eighth place – behind obesity.

Al Jazeera’s Jessica Baldwin reports from London.