Brussels, 22/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - The Belgian Liberal Frédérique Ries, a supporter of the Belgian obese patients' association, BOLD, hosted a symposium on obesity at the European Parliament on Thursday 18 October. The MEP, who wrote a report on this major public health problem in 2006, reminded her audience that 38% of women, 28% of men and 5 million children are affected by obesity in Europe. 7% of the national health-care budgets in Europe go to the fight against obesity and its effects: heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes etc.
At a session given over to treatment, which was chaired by the Greek Christian Democrat Antonios Trakatellis, the head of the medicine and nutrition department at the Pitié Salpétrière Hospital in Paris Paris, Arnaud Basdevant, pointed out that the WHO did not recognise obesity as a disease until 1997. Previously, it was considered only as a risk factor. He called upon them to “fight against obesity, not the obese”, explaining that it is a disease brought about by behaviour and the person's environment, which then becomes an organic disease, bringing about impairments of the fatty tissue, making it harder to treat. Its consequences are severe: one out of every three children in the United States is diabetic as a result of obesity; on top of this come cardiovascular disease and inflammatory diseases (liver disorder, asthma, cancer). More and more obese 16-year-olds presenting diabetes, high blood pressure and/or cardiac hypertrophy are being seen by Professor Basdevant. It is also “a disease with high psychological and social determination”, the high risk of stigmatisation and discrimination. Although it is justified to talk about physical activity and nutrition, there are a great many other factors leading to excess weight and obesity, Arnaud Basdevant stressed. The link with poverty is a clear one: in France, the obesity rate is in the order of 4 to 5% in households with an income level greater than 5000 euros; it has grown from 12% in 1997 to 18% today in households with less than 900 euros. He went on to stress the need for centres of excellence at European level in order to care for the obese. In answer to a question from Professor Trakatellis, he said that it is a disease which affects all countries in a state of economic transition, such as China, and that it is a disease of the vulnerable populations, such as populations which have immigrated into the developed countries. Drugs will help to reduce a person's weight by approximately 10%, but these are expensive and the costs cannot be claimed back. Surgery is another effective option. In France, 120,000 people have been operated on.
Jean-Paul Allonsius, President of BOLD, launched a vibrant appeal against stigmatisation. Stressing that the solution is multi-disciplinary and that its cost is prohibitive, he called on governments to guarantee that costs can be reimbursed in order to allow patients to be treated. Liselotte Kuehn (Karolinska Institute) laid emphasis on the importance of psychological work. The former sufferer explained how her children helped her to fight her own weight problems. “The treatment depends on the patient: the patient is the one with the solution”, she said, paying tribute to the support given to her during this procedure. Michele O Carruba (centre for studies and research into obesity of the University of Milan) stressed that the annual cost of obesity is 22.8 billion EUR in Italy. He put forward a simple method to define obesity: it is reached when the waist measurement exceeds 102 cm in men and 88 cm in women. We should not wait until this stage has been reached, but fight weight problems much earlier, he concluded. (O.J.)