Obesity weighing on tax payers

1:40pm Tuesday 7th October 2008

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Patients with diseases connected with being obese cost every man, woman and child in Wiltshire £237 each last year.

Figures announced by Wiltshire Primary Care Trust this week showed that it spent an estimated £106.6million in 2007 on patients with diseases related to being overweight or obese.

The PCT estimates the cost to rise to £118.3million in 2015 if no action is taken to improve diet and rates of exercise.

The figures are set out in a new Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives toolkit, available to all PCTs and local authorities to help them tackle the problem.

Wiltshire PCT launched their draft obesity strategy at its September board meeting.

Nicola Cretney, assistant director for public health at Wiltshire PCT, said: “We know that the obesity trend will not be halted overnight.

“The aim of our strategy is to improve the health of all the people in Wiltshire by identifying and implementing effective strategies to prevent obesity and to enable people to maintain a healthy weight at all life stages.”

The “toolkit” includes information like: Parents don’t recognise that their children are overweight - just 11.5 per cent of parents with overweight or obese children recognise it; Parents underestimate how much unhealthy food and convenience food they buy as well as overestimating the amount of activity their children do; Only 38 per cent of adults know that obesity can lead to heart disease and only six per cent know about the link of being overweight to cancer; Many families use snacks as rewards, as fillers during times of boredom and to appease conflict; Parents of older children are more worried about not feeding them enough and the risk of eating disorders such as anorexia; Lack of knowledge, confidence and skills is the main barrier which stops parents from cooking from scratch.