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1 op de 13 Europeanen overlijdt aan overgewicht.*
- More than 7% of deaths in the European Union can be attributed to overweight and obesity, according to calculations by Spanish researchers. Dr. Jose Ramon Banegas and colleagues from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid used data on the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the 15 EU nations to calculate the proportion of total deaths caused by carrying excess fat. They estimated the risks associated with being overweight using data from two US cancer prevention studies that followed 1.2 million men and women for 12 to 14 years. They also performed calculations to account for the effect of smoking and pre-existing illness. "Mortality attributable to excess weight is a major public health problem in the EU. At least one in 13 annual deaths in the EU are likely to be related to excess weight," they conclude in the February issue of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In their government-funded study, the researchers report that a minimum of 279,000 annual deaths could be attributed to excess weight, and the number could be as high as 304,000. About 70% of these were due to cardiovascular disease and 20% to cancer. Other diseases such as type 2 diabetes may also contribute excess weight-related deaths, Banegas said. Overall, the weight-related fatalities account for 7.7% of all deaths, they said. National rates varied from a low of 5.8% in France to 8.7% for the UK. "Our estimates are approximate and likely to be conservative," Banegas told. "It is important to remain conservative--that is, biased towards underestimation--when estimating attributable mortality, to avoid the danger of exaggerating." Using the lower estimate of 279,000 deaths, the researchers attributed about 175,000 to obesity, defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more. Overweight people--with BMIs between 25 and 30--accounted for 104,000 deaths. BMI is a measure of weight in relation to height calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by their height in metres squared. According to a World Health Organisation report last year, more than one billion people were overweight worldwide, of whom 300 million were clinically obese. The UN health organisation said that at least 500,000 of these people die each year. SOURCE: European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2003;57:201-208.