Obesity is a problem globally. Looking at the situation in Europe it is estimated that 50 per cent of adults between 35 and 65 are overweight or obese (10 to 20 per cent men; 10 to 25 per cent women).
The problem also lies in children whereby the International Obesity Task Force estimated that in Europe 14 million children aged five to seven are overweight and three million are obese.
The costs to care for obese people in Europe are big. In fact, it is estimated that it takes one to five per cent from the total health budget.
Malta is reported to have one of the highest overweight problems in Europe. The Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study found an alarmingly high proportion of Maltese children to be overweight. In fact, around 15 per cent of 13-year-olds are above the 95th weight centile and hence obese.
The European Health Interview survey reports 36.3 per cent of adults being overweight and a further 22.3 per cent being obese.
Obesity in Malta is indeed a major public health challenge and the rate among both adults and children is a cause for grave concern. The trend for people to be overweight and obese will seriously undermine all efforts in the past to overcome non-communicable diseases unless strong and concerted action is taken.
On a positive note, obesity, in recent years, is being targeted as a priority action in Malta's Strategy for Sustainable Development, and a budget has been specifically included to tackle this problem.
Obesity has considerable effects on morbidity and mortality. Type II diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, such as myocardial infarction and ischaemic stroke, are the two most important non-communicable disease outcomes of obesity.
Obese individuals are at a higher risk of developing cancer, gallstones, narcolepsy, and increased use of long-term medication, hirsutism, impaired reproductive performance, asthma, cataracts, benign prostatic hypertrophy, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and musculoskeletal disorders.
Yesterday was the first European Obesity Day. People who are overweight or obese are being encouraged to lose at least five to 10 per cent of their total body weight.
This can significantly improve health and reduce the incidence of diabetes by 58 per cent, reduce the risk of developing high blood pressure, decrease total cholesterol, reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by 48 per cent in men and 40 per cent in women and reduce the risk of osteoarthritis.
The Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate has launched a national campaign to target obesity. Its main aims are raise awareness about obesity, provide people with the support to maintain a healthy weight and support those who need to lose weight.
The main messages of this campaign are to encourage people to be involved in healthy food preparation, to choose healthy food, to eat healthy portions and to encourage people to include physical activity in their daily routine.
The directorate will be offering support to people who have a Body Mass Index (BMI) over 25 to lose weight. The services on offer include weight management classes to be held in health centres, usually in the evening, and aerobics classes to be held at local councils across Malta.
The applications will be available from health centres, from the ministry and from the directorate by calling on 2326 6000.
We encourage all people to improve their dietary habits by following a healthy Mediterranean diet, encourage breastfeeding, weight loss and the management of diabetes, cholesterol and blood pressure, which are often co-morbid conditions also present with obesity.
Maintaining a healthy weight also needs the balance of physical activity whereby we encourage more physical activity in different settings including schools, in collaboration with the education division, and to encourage people (adults and children) to decrease the amount of free leisure time spent sitting down.
Healthcare workers in primary healthcare have a particular role to encourage people to improve their lifestyle risk factors and empower on the positive impact of preventive interventions.
In fact, today, the health centres of Floriana, Mosta, Paola and Gżira will offer BMI measurements till noon.
Merely raising awareness about the problem of obesity is not enough. In fact, an inter-sectoral committee has been set up to include a number of stakeholders who can contribute to tackle the problem of obesity on a national level. This committee has had a number of meetings and is working on a strategy which will be implemented on a national scale to target the problem of obesity in adults and children.
Curbing the obesity epidemic requires sustained political commitment and the collaboration of many public and private stakeholders.
Dr Gauci is director of the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate.