Although, especially more recently, dieticians and nutritionists urge us not to consider weight as a faithful indicator of a person’s state of health, talking about obesity and overweight is a question of numbers. Those are numbers used – with all the limitations of the case – to calculate whether or not one is overweight or obese (via the body mass index), they are (huge) numbers that tell the impact of the disease at an epidemiological level. In fact, it is estimated that around one billion obese people worldwide have now become, but this number alone does not fully reflect the impact of the disease. Because this is what it is, patient associations loudly claim. And the extension of the phenomenon forces us not to delay its recognition as such, patient associations have been repeating for some time. Patients and specialists will talk about this during the European Obesity Congress, in Venice from 12 to 15 May.
Obesity emergency, 1 billion sufferers worldwide. The experts: “An epidemic”. The plan to stop her
by Donatella Zorzetto
Obesity numbers
A billion, we were saying. This is the overall figure of people with obesity globally, more than double (2.5 billion) also considering those who are overweight. Which is equivalent to saying – and the WHO says so – that just under one in two adults is overweight. If this is the global snapshot, the picture becomes even more worrying when you look back and observe the trend over the years. In just over three decades the prevalence of obesity has doubled, quadrupling if we look at adolescents, the WHO further underlines. It doesn’t get better by zooming in on Italy: it is estimated that around 11.4% of the adult population is obese and 34.9% is overweight (in children obesity and overweight would concern over 30% of the pediatric population, according to some estimates , the most conservative). Downstream there would then be all the numbers of conditions linked to obesity and which compromise people’s health, from cardiovascular diseases, to diabetes, to osteoarthritis, to the increased risk of cancer, just to name a few. Which weigh, said Francesco Mennini, researcher and professor of health economics and political economy at the University of Rome Tor Vergata some time ago at the Health Festival, citing OECD data, for around 8% of the budget of the health systems of these countries.
Festival Salute 2022, obesity: the social cost of an unrecognized disease
The recognition of obesity as a disease
Can a phenomenon of this scale be ignored? Can it be fought only with prevention campaigns and education on correct lifestyles? Without diminishing the role that all this can have, it is a widespread idea that something more needs to be done, and that these actions need to be included within a more organic effort. We need to continue on the path that considers obesity a disease. “Italy in Europe has led the way on the matter, moving for the recognition of obesity as a disease – Iris Zani, president of Amici Obesi, part of the interparliamentary group Obesity, diabetes and NCDs, comments to Salute – but at a legal and economic level we are still behind, even considering the disastrous state of the national health system. In Italy, diseases related to obesity, such as hypertension and diabetes, are treated, but not what causes them. Recognizing obesity as a disease, including it in the LEAs, is instead fundamental to help combat this which is in fact a new pandemic”.
Obesity Day, ‘No’ to guilt. Obesity is a treatable disease
by Irma D’Aria
“Obese patients are blamed for everything”
In fact, Zani confides, often people don’t start treatment courses for fear of not being able to afford them. But the economic aspects are only a (large) part of the problem: “Even today, and despite the extent of the phenomenon of overweight and obesity, there is a lack of information on available treatment strategies. Starting from general practitioners, who simply advise moving more and eating less, without directing patients to reference centres. This is also due to this, patients are often not aware of being ill, they believe that weight is only an aesthetic problem.” This – which Zani defines as ‘clinical stigma’ and which he tries to fight with his association, acting as a bridge between those seeking information and specialist centers for the treatment of obesity – is only part of the heavy stigma that has always affected those find yourself in this situation. “The obese patient is blamed for everything: because he doesn’t move enough, because he doesn’t eat less, because he chooses to have surgery and recently also because, in some cases, he resorts to new medicines to lose weight, because he takes life-saving drugs away from patients with diabetes.”
You don’t joke about too much weight, not even in your family
by Tina Simoniello
A new look at obesity
Alongside overcoming legislative obstacles, we therefore need a new look at the disease, we need to work so that it is perceived as such. Also for this reason, in Venice, at the European Congress on Obesity, Amici Obesi is staging the exhibition “Turning Key – Stories and paths of people with obesity”, black and white portraits of people who have lived, or continue to live, with obesity, concludes Zani: “There is space for both stories with happy endings and not, for those who have not had the desired result. It is a look above all at the psychological side of the disease, to remember that the disease is much more than those extra kilos. And which is more serious, because it involves related pathologies and doesn’t make you feel adequate.”
#time #tackle #obesity #epidemic
– 2024-05-11 00:51:40
