Health: OECD says governments must fight fat
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23/09/2010 - This new OECD report examines the current obesity epidemic, giving new comparative data, trends and projections across OECD countries and outlining causes and costs. It also notes ways in which the private sector and governments encouraged obesity and makes recommendations for ways they can contribute to combating it.



Since the 1980s, obesity has spread at an alarming rate. Changes in food supply and eating habits, combined with a dramatic fall in physical activity, have made obesity a global epidemic. Across OECD countries, one in 2 adults is currently overweight and 1 in 6 is obese. The rate of overweight people is projected to increase by a further 1% per year for the next 10 years in some countries.






Rates are highest in the United States and Mexico and lowest in Japan and Korea, but have been growing virtually everywhere. Children have not been spared, with up to 1 in 3 currently overweight. Severely obese people die 8-10 years sooner than those of normal-weight, similar to smokers, and they are more likely to develop diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Obesity is a burden on health systems, with health care expenditure for an obese person at least 25% higher than for someone of normal weight.





Cooperation between governments and the private sector is key to the success of combating obesity. A prevention strategy combining health promotion campaigns, government regulation and family doctors counselling their obese patients would avoid hundreds of thousands of deaths from chronic diseases every year. It would cost from USD 10 to USD 30 per person, depending on the country. Failure would impose heavy burdens of future generations.


Health ministers of OECD countries will be discussing obesity and the economics of prevention: Fit not fat when they meet at the OECD 7 – 8 October 2010.

OECD repor in obesity

1. Individual prevention programmes could avoid up to 47 000 deaths from chronic diseases every year. Deaths avoided could increase to 55 000 if different interventions were combined in a comprehensive prevention strategy. An organised programme of counselling of obese people by their family doctors would also lead to an annual gain of over 150 000 years of life in good health.




2. How much does prevention cost? How much does it save? Most prevention programmes would cost less than MXN 3.5 bn every year, with individual counselling by family doctors costing up to MXN 19 bn. Most prevention programmes will cut health expenditures for chronic diseases, but only by a relatively small margin (up to MXN 3.9 bn per year).





3. Is prevention cost-effective? Prevention can improve health at a lower cost than many treatments offered today by OECD health systems. In Mexico, all of the prevention programmes examined will be cost-effective in the long run – relative to internationally accepted standards corresponding to around MXN 640 000 per year of life gained in good health. However, some programmes will take a longer time to produce their health effects and therefore will be less cost-effective in the short run.