Sunday, 8th November 2009
Overweight people cost taxpayers €18m a year
62% of Maltese adults are overweight
Obese and overweight people in Malta are costing taxpayers almost €18 million a year in medical treatment alone, according to a new study.
These costs are just a fraction of the total financial burden caused by the overweight and obese since expenses for operations and drugs are not included, the study's authors said.
"These costs are definitely grossly underestimated," according to Neville Calleja, head of the Health Information and Research Department, who drew up the study together with Dorothy Gauci.
The study shows that overweight people cost the national health service €4.5 million per year more than people whose weight is normal, while those classified as obese - that is, with a body mass index of more than 30 - raise that figure by €13.2 million.
The study, presented during the Malta Medical Conference last Thursday, based its findings on the results of the Health Interview Survey, which found that 36.3 per cent of Maltese were overweight and 22.3 per cent were obese.
The survey provided the researchers with important data, including the number of doctor visits and hospital stays.
They used available rates for different healthcare services - €200 every night for a hospital bed, €170 for every day case, €35 for hospital outpatient appointments and €23 for health centre visits - to estimate that obese and overweight people cost €17.7 million more.
The estimate does not take into account operation costs for different obesity-related health problems, including heart attacks and strokes, or drugs for a number of diseases, ranging from high blood pressure to high cholesterol.
"This proves that investing in the prevention of obesity is an investment not only in the future health of the nation but also in the financial sustainability of the health sector," the researchers said.
Last Wednesday, the health authorities launched a campaign, which includes a 30-second television advert, urging people to lose extra weight.
The Maltese have long been among Europe's heavyweights, and children have topped the world's weighing scales. In 2006, Malta was ranked the most overweight country in Europe, followed by Greece.
Figures published by the National Statistics Office showed that 62 per cent of adults were overweight in 2007, although half of the population claimed to be on a diet.
A Eurobarometer survey published in 2007 indicated that Maltese adults are among the most self-aware in the EU about their weight problems, with a third believing they are carrying extra pounds.
Moreover, the latest Health Behaviour in School Children study, carried out in 2006, showed that Maltese 15-year-olds were the fattest in 41 countries, even surpassing the US. The study placed Malta second, after the US, for overweight and obese 11-year-olds.
In 2007, a local paediatrician who extrapolated data from the EU and the US had estimated that obesity costs Malta €77.2 million a year.
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Comments
• Do these so called expect realise the psychological harm they are inflicting on these suffering people?
• Are they aware the extreme prejudice that fat people have to endure and the humiliation that young fat students go through at school?
• Are they aware that studies conducted in the USA and UK have shown that chronic obesity cannot be controlled by dietary means alone, due to DNA and hormonal abnormalities?
Has this government become so weak that it needs to squander money on silly reports to commence the process of discriminating between persons who, according to the experts deserve treatment in public hospitals and those that do not?
And what would happen to those that are judged as not deserving free treatment and are of low income?
Would these be left out to die?
Truly, the social heart of this country has been eroded, at least were we, the native nationals are concerned. All other nationalities are welcome, as long as you pay or have come by sea.
This will be far more than the 18m!!
How is the government leading with example not to have an obyss population?? for sure by not participating in the care free day by the EU.
our dearly departed do not pay taxes, and hence are a burden on the economy. I think a tax on every year spent dead is in order, and will solve our country's economic problems.
(please note the sarcasm in my tone)
=S
This is exactly like smoking!
In the case of smoking there is a taxset on cigarettes so perhaps the person would think twice. Why aren't there taxes on junk foods etc...then IF a person wants to still eat themselves to obesity, its their choice! Its not the best choice but neither is smoking.
Next week should expect a report on how many % Maltese are smoking and how much it costs tax payers per year!!
Lets not discriminate!
We must then differ between persons who are obese because they are careless and others that are fat because of a physical condition, I will never believe somebody who says that a 250kg person is that fat because of what he eats only. I know people who eat the double of what I do and weigh half as much as me.
On a serious note, all vices have a cost on society, and no individual is immune from them. Gluttony is as much a vice as vanity induced anorexia. The government does well to take action, as he did with the gambling clampdown, a much more terrible vice.
On the other hand, as a country we make a substantial amount of money from foreign online gamblers, without giving anything back. These earnings will ultimately go to cover our vices' expenses....
MEHFA is also suggesting, and is ready to be involved, to the government to create Fitness Promotion by having someone employed full time giving continuous advice- exactly like the educational nutritionist of the Health promotion unit maybe with a Free telephone line where people can ask. It is good that the government provides areas for Fitness but it needs to be supported by a service- a human service where a professional in the field is leading the public what to do and how to do it. Nutrition is part of the obesity problem- with it you need exercise and psychological back up.
What's the message really?
To have 15 year olds (the next generation) surpass usa youngsters in weight is saying something. Get in shape and do some exercise.
With 20 million euros a year, we should be investing in better places for physical activity, more recreational areas, subsidised fees for gym and sports facilities, and reforms to reduce the number of cars on our roads - thereby promoting better air quality and safer roads for people to cycle, jog or walk on our roads.
The message here is - we need to invest more in preventing and in promoting health, and in creating an environment which is conducive to health. A healthy community is a competitive community and at the end of the day - prevention and health promotion is less costly than cure.
Look at the situation where in. Eh what about people who smoke?drink?take drugs? people who are big are visable, so lets blame them for the 'SPOT' that we are in, is that what you are saying? I am not saying that it is healty to be overweight, but these people have a stigmata,
we must tolerate everything that is put our way from everyside even EUROPE but we can not tolerate,our MOTHER?FATER?BROTHER?SISTER? no for those of you who are asking i am not BIG, and i have never hurt anyones feelings by saying that they are BIG.
Actually, anyone working in the health dept finances will tell that the income derived from tobacco taxes does not even pay for tobacco related illnesses, let alone anything left over for treating obesity.
Your use of imported cliché expressions such as "Get real dudes" hardly lends weight (pun intended) to your argument. I think I have progressed thus far in life without the need for you to tell me how to interpret what I read. If you read my argument correctly you would note that I was objecting to the HEADLINE and the discriminatory statements issued by the department concerned. I am fully aware that investment in the prevention of obesity is a positive thing; crowing about how much obese people cost the taxpayer is not. Perhaps it is you who ought to get "real", dude :)
On the other hand fat people claim all sorts of benefit for their self inflicted condition and shear laziness .So there, there is no contest between smokers and fat people when it comes to government coffers.
Sympaththic school psychologists were unheard of.
Our headmaster ruled supreme.
We ate and drank in moderation. We have never used food as an emotional anesthetic.
We have become a serious danger to ourselves.
A bit off topic: I wonder when it was the last time we heard about how many people were denied social benefits because they were abusing the system in a way or another.
"This proves that investing in the prevention of obesity is an investment not only in the future health of the nation but also in the financial sustainability of the health sector," the researchers said."
What the article is saying is that we should start investing in the prevention and not creating scapegoats or taxing obese people.
Who said smokers and drinkers have not been picked upon. Where have you been living? Mount Sliema complaining about parking?
Get real dudes, I am not a smoker, not a drinker and I am slightly obese, however I know that smokers are taxed heavily and so are drinkers (NOT ENOUGH!), there are specific laws about smoking inside and drinking outside. We have had a lot of education about anti smoking and to avoid drinking and driving and etc.. etc..
What laws are there about obese people, what education is there at schools about gaining those extra pounds?
All we get is nannna saying "tih jiekol izjjed. Kemm hu gustuz, fih qabda dak it-tifel"
62% of Maltese are overweight is not scary to you because you come out shouting foul!
‘Regular’ weight people live a healthier lives and live longer. The longer people live, the longer they are entitled to a state pension - again a strain on our taxes.
It is high time we face the happy reality that people are living longer than before and that the pensionable age must increase closer to 70 years sooner than later.
Who is the next culprit?
Lets put things clear I do agree that education is needed here and that parents should be forced to keep their children thin. Stating that food is a drug which the government AND the private sector had learn to exploit. How much money is generated through restaurants and fast food shops and how come healthy food usually cost more then non healthy one?