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Obesity General Information
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Last modified date:20 February 2008
Obesity is both a highly complex issue for society and a costly debilitating lifestyle disease. Already a quarter of the adult population in England is classified as obese and almost a fifth of all children under the age of 16 are obese.
Health Survey for England (HSE) data revealed that in 2006, 38% of adults in England were overweight and 24% were classified as obese. 67% of men and 56% of women were either overweight or obese in 2006.
29.7% of children aged 2 to 15 were classed as overweight or obese in 2006. Figures for boys and girls among this age group were 30.6% and 28.7% respectively. 17.3% of boys and 14.7% of girls were obese.
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).
Long-term ambition on obesity
In October 2007, the Government set a new long-term ambition to tackle obesity.
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.
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