Slechte voedingsgewoontes kosten Engeland jaarlijks bijna 10 miljard.*
Onderzoekers analyseerden data van de Wereld Gezondheid Organisatie (WHO) en Europese data en kwamen tot de conclusie dat jaarlijks in Engeland bijna 10 miljard euro van de kosten in de gezondheidszorg het gevolg zijn van slechte voedingsgewoontes. Dat is drie keer meer dan de kosten als gevolg van het roken. De onderzoekers zeggen erbij dat hun berekeningen natuurlijk niet 100% juist doch waarschijnlijk een goed eind in de richting zullen zijn. Verder bemerken ze dat de politiek weinig of niets doet bijv. in vergelijking met het roken.
Bad
eating habits costing UK health service £6 billion every year
The
UK's poor dietary habits are costing its health service an annual £6 billion -
three times as much as the financial toll from smoking - reveals research in the
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
The research team used European data from the World Health Organization's burden
of disease project, calculating the proportion of ill health and deaths
attributable to food. The definition included food poisoning as well as dietary
habits.
The information gathered was then backed up by an extensive review of published
studies on the financial and health costs of disease and deaths related to food
consumption.
The authors used a composite term to describe the impact of ill health and death,
known as DALYs, or disability adjusted life years.
They calculated that 37% of DALYS were attributable to food related diseases,
with just a fraction of this (0.2%) attributable to food poisoning.
Cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes account for most of this.
Clearly, diet is not responsible for all cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and
cancer, which account for 28% of health service costs, amounting to an annual £18
billion in 2002.
But the authors calculate that food accounts for around a third, accounting for
10% of all DALYS and costing an annual £6 billion.
This is double the cost to the health service of road traffic accidents, over
three times the cost of smoking, and significantly higher than the cost of
obesity, estimated at £479 million.
The authors admit their calculations are crude, but suggest that they are
probably reasonable. “The estimates suggest that the burden of food related
ill health is large, compared with say, smoking, and suggests that [it] has been
neglected by health and food policy makers,” they say.
And they call for more specific government health targets on diet, equivalent to
those already in place for smoking.
JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND COMMUNITY HEALTH
[The burden of food related ill health in the UK
J Epidemiol Community Health 2005; 59: 1054-7]
(November
2005) (Opm. Waarschijnlijk zullen de kosten
nog wel hoger zijn en verhoudingsgewijs wel gelden voor ieder West-Europees
land. Het is ook weer een bevestiging van onze filosofie)
