Maltese carry weight and that’s bad news

Malta excels... in obesity. Again. The results of a new study from Brussels confirm once more that Malta has one of the highest rates of obesity in the EU. The study also shows that those with the lowest level of education tend to be the fattest.

The differences between obesity rates in different socio-economic classes are staggering.

From the 21 per cent of adult Maltese women who were found to be obese in 2009, 30.5 per cent had the lowest level of education (compulsory schooling only), almost triple the obesity levels of those who had completed tertiary (University) education.

Similar statistics apply to adult males, where 30 per cent had compulsory schooling only, falling to 22.8 per cent for those who had been to University.

The survey also indicates that only the UK has a bigger problem of obesity than Malta’s. Recent British studies have shown that, among those in lower socio-economic classes, obesity is expected to rise while for those with professional backgrounds it is likely to fall with increasing levels of awareness.

It has been speculated that the widening socio-economic gap in obesity rates may be partly due to difficulties in reaching and communicating health messages to families in lower socio-economic groups. However, experts have also noted that it is often more expensive and more time-consuming to practise healthy eating as opposed to processed and junk food. This situation, it was further established, gives families with better overall levels of education – and, presumably, better paid occupations – a significant advantage.

Prevention is crucial. Treating obesity is expensive.

There appears to be a high level of political commitment, including an increase in available funds to tackle this problem. Measures have included the employment of two new nutritionists at the Health Promotion Directorate.

Moreover, last year, the government committed €150,000 to a campaign to fight obesity through free weight management and aerobics classes. It was an exercise that was probably more useful in raising awareness than in actually and tangibly combating the disease. But it was a good move.

Obesity causes hypertension, diabetes, stroke, heart disease and cancer as well as many other medical conditions too numerous to list here and all very costly to treat.

For example, the annual cost of cardiovascular disease in the EU is about €192 billion, bigger than the entire EU budget. A total of 12,000 Europeans die every day due to heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases and many others remain disabled after surviving treatment for these conditions.

The European Heart Network has called for hard-hitting political decisions to include taxes on fatty and sugary foods and for the control of advertising of unhealthy foods, particularly those aimed at children. It also recommends that EU subsidies be redirected to promote nutritional quality in food.

The president of the International Association for the Study of Obesity says that we are sitting on a ticking time bomb. Since weight tends to increase with age, we are more likely to become ill before retirement age, a paradoxical situation when governments expect workers to continue in employment well into their 60s and, thereby, continue to pay tax and national insurance contributions.

Obesity-related illnesses are more likely to affect the poorest families, inevitably worsening their plight. That is why action must be taken and prevention promoted at all costs. Prevention is, after all, vastly cheaper than cure.