Brussels, 22/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) points out: 'National health campaigns encouraging people to be immunised against influenza and discouraging overuse of alcohol and cigarettes are less expensive than curing the diseases they cause. But OECD countries spend, on average, less than 3% of their healthcare budgets on prevention and public awareness programmes.' In the EU, only the Netherlands (5.5%), Hungary (5%), Germany (4.8%), Finland (3.8%) and Poland (3.4%) spend more than the OECD average. The OECD's Health at a Glance report notes that 'lifestyle choices contribute to heart diseases and strokes, which are the cause of death for 38% of people in OECD countries. Death rates from heart attacks, caused by fatty deposits in the coronary artery, vary widely across countries. But it is noticeable that people in the Slovak Republic, Hungary and the Czech Republic, where diets are heavy in fats, are up to ten times more likely to die of heart attacks than those in Japan and South Korea where they have low-fat diets.' The OECD warns that increasing obesity could counteract the positive trend, although the only country coming close to the US record of 30.6% of the population being obese (defined as body mass index (BMI) over 30) and a total of 65.7% overweight (BMI between 25 and 30), is the United Kingdom where 23% of the population is obese and 39% overweight (so 62% of people living in Britain are overweight). Some levels of obesity in the EU: Italy (8.5% obese) and 33.5% overweight; Austria (9.1%) and 37%, France (9.4%), Denmark (9.5%), Sweden (9.7%), Poland (11.4%), Belgium (11.7%), Finland and Portugal (both 12.8%), Germany (12.9%), the Netherlands (10%), Ireland (13%), Spain (13.1%), Czech Republic (14.8%), Luxembourg (18.4%), Hungary (18.8%), Greece (21.9%) and Slovakia (22.4%). In 2003, there were 2.9 doctors (practising physicians) on average per 1000 inhabitants in the OECD. Greece is at the top of the league, with 4.4 doctors per 1000 inhabitants, followed by Italy (4.1) and Belgium (3.9). EU countries below the OECD average include Luxembourg (2.7), Finland and Ireland (both 2.6), Poland (2.5) and the United Kingdom (2.2). Most of the OECD figures date back to 2002 and 2003.