NICE called on to lead the fight against obesity
pharmafile | September 1, 2006 | News story | |Â Â Â
Following grim warnings that more than 12 million adults and one million children in England will be obese in less than five years, NICE has taken on the task of spearheading the government's fight for a healthier British lifestyle.
The Department of Health's new Minister for Fitness, Caroline Flint, has conferred eight new public health topics on NICE, in line with the institute's widened remit to develop guidance on promoting good health, and preventing and treating ill-health.
Apart from the stark statistics over obesity, NICE will also develop strategies for reducing the harm from smoking, providing sensible alcohol information for young people, promoting workplace and mental health, managing long-term sickness and incapacity, and reducing short and long-term health inequalities, as well as promoting children's physical activity, and health in schools and colleges But it is the spectre of obesity that is particularly worrying the government. The Department of Health has given its backing to a scheme where GPs give overweight patients diet and exercise plans, and already 10 pilots in various parts of the country – known as LEAP (Local Exercise Action Pilot) – are being assessed.
The government's recent Health Survey for England warns that 19% of boys and 22% of girls aged between two and 15 will be obese by the year 2010, as well as 33% of men and 28% of women.
Caroline Flint said: "Obesity is a very real problem that affects everyone in society – especially children and our future generation. Levels of obesity are predicted to reach worrying levels in coming years. That is why we are committed to tackling this issue head on by asking NICE to take this work programme forward."
She added: "Guidance on the promotion of physical activity in children will be a welcome addition to our efforts to halt the rise of obesity among children aged under 11 by 2010 and reduce obesity in the population as a whole."
NICE's public health programme, which began last year, is beginning to produce its first outputs. The institute published its first public health guidance (on smoking cessation and physical activity interventions) in March.
It says it expects to publish new guidance on obesity and sexual health interventions later this year.
Health secretary Patricia Hewitt, speaking in an interview on BBCs Radio 4, said: "The government has a responsibility to make it easier for people to make healthy choices for themselves.
"But at the end of the day, it is up to each of us to decide what we eat, what we drink, how much exercise we take and how we bring our children up."
Dr Susan Jebb, Medical Research Council nutritionist was reported as saying the government's bid to halt the rise in childhood obesity by the end of the decade was unrealistic. She believed it could take many decades to reverse the trend but the food industry, as well as the government, had a role in helping people to make healthy choices.
