EUROPE ADDRESSES ITS EPIDEMIC OF OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITYRecognizing that overweight and obesity have reached epidemic proportions in Europe and that the phenomenon is contributing to the concomitant epidemic of cardiovascular diseases, the region’s governments have adopted a historic new “European Charter on Counteracting Obesity.” “Overweight and obesity contribute to a large proportion of noncommunicable diseases, shortening life expectancy and adversely affecting the quality of life,” the five-page document declares. World Heart Federation attends Istanbul signingThe governments adopted the Charter on 16 November 2006 at the WHO European Ministerial Conference on Counteracting Obesity in Istanbul, Turkey. Signing on behalf of national health ministers and other delegates were the World Health Organization’s Regional Director for Europe Marc Danzon and Turkey’s Minister of Health Recep Akdag. Representing the World Heart Federation was Science Information Officer Danielle Grizeau-Clemens. “Serious public health challenge”The Charter says that “the epidemic of obesity poses one of the most serious public health challenges in the WHO European Region,” adding that “more than one million deaths in the region annually are due to diseases related to excess body weight.” “Sufficient evidence exists for immediate action,” it says, indicating that Europe’s “prevalence of obesity has risen up to three-fold in the last two decades.” Half of all adults and one in five children in the WHO European Region are overweight, and a third of them are already obese, with the numbers “increasing fast,” it says. The Charter explicitly recognizes that global nature of the problem. Indeed, approximately 1.1 billion of the world’s 6 billion people are overweight or obese, according to the World Health Organization. Ten percent of them are children. If current trends continue, the number of the world’s overweight or obese in 2015 would be 1.5 billion, the World Health Organization predicts. "The trend is particularly alarming in children and adolescents,” the Charter points out, noting that “the annual rate of increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity has been rising steadily and is currently up to 10 times higher than it was in 1970". Focus on educating children draws praiseWorld Heart Federation past-President Valentin Fuster applauded the Charter, particularly its strong emphasis on children and on programmes that would encourage them to form healthy habits early in life. “This is what the World Heart Federation has been saying all along,” Dr Fuster said. “The key is reaching children with heart-healthy messages about the benefits of healthful diets and physical activity as well as of avoiding tobacco smoke." “Through its demonstration projects, the World Heart Federation is putting the idea of reaching children into tangible practice. Our fresh and expanding partnership with Sesame Workshop is educating Spanish-speaking children in Colombia and throughout the Americas heart-healthy habits that they can form and use their entire lives. The World Heart Federation is also taking a lead in training a cadre of Latin American adolescents in methods to educate their peers about simple yet effective strategies to keep their hearts young well into old age." "We commend the WHO Europe and it partners in developing the Charter, the European Commission, for their visionary leadership. As the Charter stresses, the epidemic of obesity and overweight is eminently reversible. The time to act is now." A new European Childhood Obesity Prevention Alliance of concerned nongovernmental organization was inaugurated at the conference. To read the European Charter on Counteracting Obesity, go to www.euro.who.int/Document/E89567.pdf
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