March 3, 2020 – The rate of obesity among the adult men in Croatia is highest among the EU states, Croatian Institute for Public Health reported and warned the public about the negative consequences of that situation.
On March 4th, the World Obesity Day is observed all over the world, and that’s what lead the Croatian Institute for Public Health to warn about the dangers of the obesity, and inform the public how it’s one of the largest public-health risks in the 21st century, as over 650 million people globally deal with obesity.
According to the European Health Survey, every other adult in Croatia is either overweight or obese, and this rate can be linked with the reduction in life expectancy in Croatia of as much as 3.5 years in the next 30 years. The Institute is currently running a project “To Life Healthy” (Živjeti zdravo) though which the experts are trying to highlight the fact that the causes of obesity are varied, often more complex than just the bad food habits and irregular activities. Nobody is exclusively responsible for their obesity, as many environmental factors influence it. As in many other countries in the EU, the frequency of obesity is affected by the socio-economical inequalities. The World Health Organisation, however, warns that the rate of obesity in the EU has tripled since the 1980s.
In Croatia, one in three eight-year-olds is considered to be overweight, as the problem appears earlier in life for many people. Sanja Musić Milanović, the director of the Croatian Institute for Public Health Service for Promotion of Health said that weight problems are a logical result of the social circumstances. The healthy choices are rarely the easier choices, so we need to work on the environment where it’s easier to adopt good habits. To tackle that, Musić Milanović says we need to adopt the multidisciplinary approach, which will modify the surroundings, support healthy lifestyle choices, provide opportunities for physical activities each day, make healthy ingredients more easily available and stimulate companies promote healthy habits.
