Public Health Policy Surrounding Obesity in the UK
Health problems related to obesity in the United Kingdom (UK) cost the National Health Service (NHS) more than £5 Billion a year. In England alone more than 61.9% adults and 28% of children are classified as overweight or obese (DoH 2015) increasing their risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer. The UK Government are taking a multifaceted approach to empowering people to make healthier choices encouraging people to be more active and to eat and drink more healthily (DoH 2015).
Health problems related to obesity in the United Kingdom (UK) cost the National Health Service (NHS) more than £5 Billion a year. In England alone more than 61.9% adults and 28% of children are classified as overweight or obese (DoH 2015) increasing their risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer. The UK Government are taking a multifaceted approach to empowering people to make healthier choices encouraging people to be more active and to eat and drink more healthily (DoH 2015).
The Foresight Report (2007)
identified worrying figures and predication's about obesity rates in the UK
suggesting that by 2050 60% of men and 50% of women could be clinically obese
and has the potential to cripple the NHS with a staggering £45.5 billion a
year. They recommended approaching this from multiple levels including
personal, family, community and nationally.
The Government produced a
white paper called Healthy Lives Healthy People (DoH 2010) which sets out to
tackle the issues surrounding obesity from a whole society perspective,
encouraging individuals, communities and industry to work together to improve
the health of the nation. In response to this white paper a number of actions
were undertaken to address the issues raised (DoH 2010).


The Deal encourages
businesses to voluntarily ‘sign up’ to the Deal and outline pledges to help
achieve the overall core commitments. This voluntary approach echoes the points
raised in the White Paper suggesting that the Government aims to use a less
intrusive approach in order to achieve the desired effect without resorting to
government legislation
Despite these strategies and
campaigns the levels of obesity remain the same. In order to tackle the issue
and to reduce the estimated 2050 statistics a more holistic approach to obesity
need to be undertaken one that uses behaviour change techniques and
multidisplinary teams.
Public
health policy surrounding obesity in Malta
Ever since the obesity epidemic
became a worldwide problem, Malta has suffered along with the rest of the
world. In fact, Malta has some of the highest rates of overweight and obesity
in Europe.
Figure 1:
Age-standardized prevalence estimates for overweight and obesity in adults aged
18 years and over, 2014
As can be seen from the above figure
(Figure 1), Maltese adults were the third most overweight and obese of all
European countries in 2014, after Andorra and Turkey (WHO, 2015). A study published
in 2014 by Decelis et al., showed that 20.4% of 10 to 11-year-old Maltese
children were overweight and another 14.2% were obese in 2012 (Decelis et al.,
2014).
The Healthy Weight for Life Strategy
was developed in 2012 and has an eight-year time frame (2012-2020). Its overall
aim is to curb and reverse the growing proportion of overweight and obese
children and adults in the population in order to reduce the health, social and
economic consequences of excess body weight. This requires an inter-ministerial
and multi-sectorial approach, so that changes are made to the living
environment, which shift it from one that promotes weight gain (obesogenic) to
one that promotes healthy choices and a healthy weight for all. In order to
promote healthy eating, several priority areas for action were identified,
highlighting the importance of involving stakeholders, educating consumers,
promoting breastfeeding, supporting pregnant women and new mothers, supporting
families of school-age children to provide the younger generation with
healthier food, regulating advertising of unhealthy foods directed at children
and supporting schools to implement healthy eating, among many others.
A Food and Nutrition Policy and
Action Plan for Malta was also developed in 2015. Its aims are to be reached by
2020 so it spans 5 years in total. It encompasses several areas for action
including five priority action areas which are; to increase the information
about the food and nutrition action plan to all stakeholders, to improve the
availability and accessibility of drinking water in schools, to increase the
number of mothers who exclusively breastfeed up to six months, to reduce the
availability and intake of foods high in fat,
sugar, and salt in schools and to develop a comprehensive surveillance
and monitoring system on food consumption.
New draft guidelines have been issued by the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate (Figure 2 below). They will be consolidated when the first nationwide dietary survey is planned to be completed sometime in 2016 (Food-based dietary guidelines Malta, FAO).
Figure 2: The Healthy Plate as endorsed by the
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Department in 2015 Source: Health Promotion and Disease
Prevention Directorate, Malta
A National Food Consumption Survey,
which is taking place right now, is expected to be finished by the end of 2016.
It covers a larger proportion of the Maltese population in order to be
representative, and asks detailed questions to each interviewee. It includes
weight, height and waist circumference measurement, a detailed 24-hour recall
with portion sizes and a food frequency questionnaire. This survey is expected
to show a clearer picture of what the Maltese typical diet consists of.
Apart from this survey, other
initiatives are being taken by the Ministry of Energy and Health to collect
enough information about Maltese health in order to form proper dietary
guidance at all age groups. For example; The Body-Mass Index (BMI), Bags and
Backs study will measure the weight and height of all Maltese school children
to determine the rate of childhood overweight and obesity.
References
Department of Health (2009)
Change4life marketing strategy [online] available from < http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/supporter-resources/downloads/change4life_marketing%20strategy_april09.pdf>
[March 2016
Department of Health
(2010) Healthy Lives, Healthy People [white
paper] London: Stationary Office (Cm7985)
Department of Health (2011)
The Public Health Responsibility Deal [online] available at
<https://responsibilitydeal.dh.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/The-Public-Health-Responsibility-Deal-March-20111.pdf>
[1 March 2016].
Department of Health (2015)
Policy Paper 2010 to 2015 government policy: Obesity and Healthy eating
[online] available from < https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-obesity-and-healthy-eating/2010-to-2015-government-policy-obesity-and-healthy-eating>
[March 2016]
King, D. (2007) Foresight
report on obesity. The Lancet, 370(9601), 1754
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate. (2012). A Healthy Weight for Life: A National Strategy for Malta 2012-2020. Superintendence of Public Health, Valletta, Malta
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate. (2015). Food and Nutrition Policy and Action Plan for Malta 2015–2020. Superintendence of Public Health, Valletta, Malta
FAO. Food-based dietary guidelines - Malta. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/nutrition/education/food-based-dietary-guidelines/regions/countries/malta/en/
World Health Organization. (2015). The European health report - Targets and beyond, reaching new frontiers in evidence.
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate. (2012). A Healthy Weight for Life: A National Strategy for Malta 2012-2020. Superintendence of Public Health, Valletta, Malta
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate. (2015). Food and Nutrition Policy and Action Plan for Malta 2015–2020. Superintendence of Public Health, Valletta, Malta
FAO. Food-based dietary guidelines - Malta. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/nutrition/education/food-based-dietary-guidelines/regions/countries/malta/en/
World Health Organization. (2015). The European health report - Targets and beyond, reaching new frontiers in evidence.