obesity

UK health report flags weight and dementia risks

pharmafile | March 28, 2014 | News story | Sales and Marketing Dame Sally Davies, Public Health England, dementia, obesity 

A new Department of Health report suggests that being overweight is now the norm in England – and that deafness and blindness may be risk factors for dementia.

The document is part of chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies’ annual report on the state of public health in the country.

On England’s growing weight problem, Dame Sally writes: “I am increasingly concerned that society may be normalising being overweight.”

She goes on: “Larger mannequins are being introduced into clothes shops, ‘size inflation’ means that clothes with the same size label have become larger in recent decades, and news stories about weight often feature pictures of severely obese people, which are unrepresentative of the majority of overweight people.

The report says that around 62% of adults and 28% of children aged between two and 15 years are overweight or obese. It also points out that the average weight in England is now medically described as ‘overweight’.

Dame Sally says that social deprivation coupled with excessive consumption of sugary food and drinks are ‘significant risk factors’ in the development of weight problems.

She also suggests that a ‘sugar tax’ on manufacturers may need to be considered by legislators in future to help reduce the amount of added sugar in the nation’s diet.

Public Health England (PHE) health and wellbeing director Professor Kevin Fenton told the BBC: “We share [Dame Sally’s] concerns. Overweight and obesity costs the NHS over £5 billion each year and is entirely preventable.”

The risk of developing a number of conditions, including diabetes and cancer, is significantly higher among overweight or obese people, according to the World Health Organization – and global obesity has doubled over the last 34 years.

Another key message of the DH report is that dementia in older patients may be related to deafness or blindness. Results from the latest ‘GP Patient Survey’ indicates that patients aged between 55 and 84 years are more than twice as likely to report dementia or Alzheimer’s disease if they suffer from a visual or hearing impairment.

However, the apparent correlation is not completely understood. PHE population health science director, Adrian Davis, who authored the report’s chapter on sensory impairment, writes: “More research in this area is likely to be beneficial, and may have implications for prevention and management of dementia in those without sensory impairment, as well as in those with blindness or deafness.”

Hugh McCafferty

Related Content

dementia image

Nxera Pharma partner Neurocrine Biosciences enters phase 1 NBI-1117567 study

Nxera Pharma’s neuroscience-focused biopharmaceutical partner  Neurocrine Biosciences has announced it has successfully started its phase …

national-cancer-institute-l8twzt4ccvq-unsplash_1

Eli Lilly launches digital healthcare process

Eli Lilly has announced its new digital healthcare experience, LillyDirect, which will benefit patients in …

Teva Pharmaceuticals shares phase 3 data for Ajovy as migraine treatment

Teva Pharmaceuticals has announced data from a post hoc analysis of two phase 3 clinical …

Latest content