Obesity cost the public health service €19.5 million in 2008 and this will go up to an estimated €27 million by 2020 unless something is done about the problem in the meantime.

The cost would rise due to more and longer patient stays in hospital and more frequent consultations.

If the cost to private hospitals is included, but excluding medicines, surgery, consumables and a loss of income, the current bill goes from the €20 million region to €25 million, according to Superintendent for Public Health Ray Busuttil.

Dr Busuttil was speaking at the launch of the Healthy Weight for Life Strategy, which aims to tackle the growing problem with a clear plan for the next eight years.


36%

Malta’s overweight adults


The Health Ministry’s national strategy, the work of the Intersectoral Committee to Counteract Obesity, has been on the drawing board since 2007 and involved six ministries to create a common action plan.

It aims to curb and reverse the growing proportion of overweight and obese children and adults to reduce their health risks and associated social and economic consequences. The strategy’s targets include reducing the self-reported overweight and obese adult population from 36 per cent to 33 and from 22 per cent to 18 respectively.“They may not seem to be big drops but we are on a rising trend,” Dr Busuttil stressed.

The strategy also aims to reduce measured overweight and obese seven-year-olds from 32 per cent to 27, and to maintain the proportion of obese 13-year-olds below 15 per cent.

Malta takes the cake in terms of overweight and obese adult males and 15-year-olds, while the proportion of adult females is also high on a European level, Dr Busuttil said, pointing out that the problem was escalating almost exponentially.

Speaking at the launch at the Grand Hotel Excelsior yesterday, Dr Busuttil said the strategy proposes to look into taxing unhealthy foods and making healthier ones more accessible, even through subsidies. Its implementation involves three-year rolling action plans.

A group will be set up to ensure actions are achieved within the allocated time frame and budget, and targets will be monitored in 2015, 2018 and 2020. Prevalence and trends would also be observed and the effectiveness of interventions examined.

Promoting healthy eating

The statistics for eating habits of the Maltese are not encouraging: 15 per cent of adults eat processed meat products, including burgers and sausages, on a daily basis, fish consumption is low and 40 per cent of children have soft drinks every day.

For this reason, the strategy outlines nutrition targets. By 2020, it aims to reduce the intake of processed meat by five per cent and the percentage of the population who never consumes fish by 20 per cent.

At the same time, the consumption of sweets and soft drinks, salt and fat should all decrease by 10 per cent.

Its areas for action target breastfeeding in particular, proposing a review of the Breastfeeding Policy for Malta, legislation on marketing of breast milk substitutes and knowledge on the subject in schools’ PSD curriculum. The strategy will also be assessing the feasibility of providing a regular healthy breakfast to kindergarten children and promoting healthy meals at extracurricular school activities.

Restricting access to energy-dense snacks from outlets close to schools and the development of codes of conduct in inappropriate food adverts for children’s programmes should be looked into.

Physical activity

The targets for physical activity, another reason for obesity, include increasing the proportion of the population that exercises daily from 43.5 per cent to 70 per cent.

The strategy also aims to reduce the percentage of children and adolescents who never do any exercise by five per cent and to increase the proportion of youths who exercise regularly from 37 per cent to at least 50 per cent by 2015 and 80 per cent by 2020.

In schools, the plan is to develop a National Physical Activity Action Plan and to revise the curriculum to increase Physical Education to three hours a week, with at least 30 minutes a day during school hours.

Health care services

In terms of health care, access to a personalised service for overweight and obese people should be enhanced.

At a community level, the strategy proposes overweight and obesity clinics for adults and children, as well as cookery clubs, while it also considers the feasibility of weight-loss surgery.

Health impact of obesity

• 80 per cent of Type II diabetes
• 55 per cent of hypertension
• 35 per cent of heart disease

Obesity can also cause cancer, gallstones, asthma, musculoskeletal disorders, mental disorders, impaired reproductive function, sleep-associated eating disorders.

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