Rajeev Choudhury

Obesity may soon overtake smoking as the main risk factor for preventable cancer, warns the World Health Organisation (WHO) in its latest obesity report for the European region.

With almost two-thirds of adults and 1 in 3 children in the region living with overweight or obesity, which is among the top determinants of death and disability, and cause of 13 different types of cancer, needs to be treated and managed by multidisciplinary teams, the UN health agency said.

“Obesity knows no borders. In Europe and Central Asia, no single country is going to meet the WHO Global NCD target of halting the rise of obesity,” said Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe.

“The countries in our region are incredibly diverse, but everyone is challenged to some degree; by creating environments that are more enabling, promoting investment and innovation in health, and developing strong and resilient health systems, we can change the trajectory of obesity in the Region,” he added.

Overweight and obesity have reached epidemic proportions in the region with 63% of the males and  54% of the females suffering from the condition, the WHO report revealed.

Stating that the COVID pandemic has exacerbated the problem, the report noted that obese patients are more likely to experience complications and death from the virus.

“Obesity is influenced by the environment, so it is important to look at this problem from the perspective of every stage of life. For example, the life of children and adolescents is impacted by digital environments, including the marketing of unhealthy food and drinks,” said Dr Kremlin Wickramasinghe, Acting Head of the WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of NCDs, which produced the WHO European Regional Obesity Report 2022.

 Adding that no single policy is going to work in controlling the rise in obesity, Dr Wickramasinghe said that it is important to prioritise two or three policies to implement immediately and have a feasible plan to introduce the rest of the interventions.

“Restricting the marketing of unhealthy foods to children, taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages and improving health system response for obesity management are currently among the most actively discussed policy areas in the WHO European Region,”

It may be noted that death due to obesity across the globe has increased 1.5 times between 1990 and 2019 and accounted for 8.56% of total deaths in 2019, data from various estimates suggest.