World Health Organization says most people in Europe too fat

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age United Kingdom, said: “It is deeply concerning that the United Kingdom is lagging behind nearly all of the most developed nations in Europe in terms of average life expectancy for women”. “Our Member States have embraced the opportunity of Health 2020 and we are beginning to see real results”.

The World Health Organization is concerned that while the war against alcohol and smoking is being won, the war against obesity is being lost.

The report warns that Europe has the highest rates of alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking in the world, with obesity rates second only to North America. Only Finnish and Portuguese men live shorter lives and both countries have life expectancies just mere months shorter than that of Danish men.

But, Ms Stein warned the ‘differences in health status between European countries are… inexplicably wide’.

The report adds that policy intervention on alcohol consumption, such as controlling its availability and pricing, are also slowly bearing fruit.

A girl born in Denmark in 2011 can expect to life to 82.1 years of age while women in Italy, France and Switzerland can enjoy a full three years more.

Europeans still smoke and drink more than people anywhere else in the world, according to the WHO. Despite generally high vaccination coverage in Europe, immunity gaps still account for ongoing endemic transmission and have led to a number of outbreaks of measles and rubella in recent years. This is extremely high when contrasted with Eastern Mediterranean and African Regions with 7% and 3% of tobacco-related deaths and also with the global average which stands at 12%.

This report shows heartening progress. Much remains to be done, however.

For now, however, the life expectancy is increasing steadily within the region with the premature mortality rate decreasing. The report uses a baseline year of 2012 to measure whether health is getting better or worse. The experience of well-being, however, is strongly influenced by cultural context and the report calls for more research to understand this connection.

Several WHO Regional Office for Europe programmes work on tackling the obesity epidemic in the region, including those focusing not only on physical activity and diet but also on socioeconomic determinants, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, cancer and child and adolescent health.

“These include the use of non-traditional data sources such as qualitative evidence and narrative studies”. A summary publication, entitled European health report highlights, is also available in English, French, German and Russian on the site.

The full report is available in English with Russian, French and German versions coming soon.