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Obesity General Information

  • Last modified date:
    4 June 2009

  

Obesity is both a highly complex issue for society and a costly debilitating lifestyle disease. In England, almost a quarter of adults and almost a sixth of all children under the age of 11 are obese.

The Health Survey for England (HSE) data shows that in 2007, 60.8% of adults (aged 16 or over) in England were overweight or obese, out of these 24% were obese. The rate of obesity and overweight in adults has fallen slightly from 61.6% in 2006.

In 2007, 28.6% of of children (aged 2 to 10) in England were overweight or obese, out of these 15.4% were obese. The rate of obesity and overweight in children aged 2 to 10 has increased slightly from 27.7% in 2006.

The HSE obesity statistics can be found at:

Foresight: Tackling Obesities: Future Choices project, www.foresight.gov.uk published in October 2007, predict that if no action is taken, by 2050, 60% of men and 50% of women and 25% of children will be obese.

Being obese or overweight increases the risk of a range of diseases that can have a significant health impact on individuals.

Around 58% of type-2 diabetes, 21% of heart disease and between 8% and 42% of certain cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon) are attributable to excess body fat. Obesity is responsible for 9,000 premature deaths each year in England, and reduces life expectancy by, on average, 9 years. Obese people can experience stigmatization and bullying, which can lead to depression and low self-esteem.

Obesity also has serious economic costs. It has been estimated that the cost of obesity to the NHS is approximately £4.2 billion and Foresight forecast this will more than double by 2050. However, there are also costs to society and the economy more broadly – for example, sickness absence reduces productivity. Foresight estimate that weight problems already cost the wider economy in the region of £16 billion, and that this will rise to £50 billion per year by 2050 if left unchecked.

Definitions of overweight and obesity

The Body Mass index (BMI) is the common method of evaluating individual people to see if they are under or overweight. It involves comparing their weight to their height by dividing the weight measurement (expressed in kilograms) by the square of the height (expressed in meters).

Local data on Body Mass Index levels

The Government is committed to reducing obesity across the population as a whole, working with a number of other Government departments in a joined-up cross Whitehall strategy.

The National Obesity Observatory

The National Obesity Observatory (NOO) was established to provide a single point of contact for wide-ranging authoritative information on data and evidence relating to obesity, overweight, underweight and their causes in order to support policy makers. Part of a network of public health observatories working across Britain and Ireland, NOO has made significant progress on a number of key areas, including:

  • developing a framework for evaluation of childhood weight management interventions to promote consistent recording standards across work in this area.
  • mapping available surveillance data for obesity both in England and internationally.
  • providing innovative analytical and data presentation tools to support policy and practice

For more information visit the NOO website:

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