Obesity Costs UK Health Service L200 Million A Year

The UK is currently witnessing an upward trend in the prevalence of obesity, with over half the male population and two in five women being overweight, according to a new report from the Office of Health Economics. The report estimates that 20 million adults in the UK are overweight, with six million of these being obese. Treatment of obesity and medical conditions made worse by overweight cost the National Health Service almost L200 million ($310 million) a year.

In the government's Health of the Nation document drawn up in 1992, the targets for overweight people involve a reduction in the percentage of those obese to no more than 6% among men and 8% among women by 2005. However, in a follow-up document published a year later, obesity among men was shown to have increased from 8% in 1986/7 to 13% in 1991, and from 12% to 15% among women.

The etiology of overweight is complex, with genetic or metabolic factors probably interacting with psychological, behavioral and lifestyle factors. So for some people overweight will derive primarily from social and environmental factors, while for others the main etiology will be inherited or genetic characteristics and in some cases psychological problems will be the principal root.