Prevelance of obesity in Europe has tripled in the past 20 years

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Wednesday, November 29, 2006 1:48 am Email this article
"The prevalence of obesity in Europe has tripled in the past two decades," notes a news article in the British Medical Journal. "Half of all adults and one in five children in the WHO's [World Health Organization's] European region are overweight. Of these a third are obese."

Obesity accounts for 6 percent of healthcare costs in Europe according to the article.

Excess body weight is responsible for an estimated one million deaths per year in Europe, and by 2010, one in ten children will be obese.

Europe has identified obesity as one of their most serious health problems.

The 48 member nations of the World Health Organization’s European region met in Istanbul, Turkey last week and signed a charter ackowledging the problem and a strategy to deal with it.

REFERENCE

Watson R. European nations draw up strategy to fight obesity. BMJ. 2006 Nov 25, 333(7578):1088.

Articles on the same subject can be found here:

• Obesity statistics