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Fettleibigkeit in Europa als chronische Erkrankung

Fettleibigkeit sollte formell als eine chronische Erkrankung anerkannt werden. Das forderten Aktivisten diese Woche. In Europa habe die Fettleibigkeit epidemische Ausmaße angenommen. Bereits die Hälfte seiner Bürger sei übergewichtig. Campaigners stepped up their calls for Europe to formally recognise obesity as a chronic disease ahead of European Obesity Day on 21 May.

The move came as stakeholders groups warned that chronic, and long-term diseases in general, face cuts in the upcoming EU research budget reforms and pushed for commitments to EU funding.

European Obesity Day President Jean-Paul Allonsius, speaking at a lunch staged in the European Parliament to raise awareness of the day, called on the EU and member states to recognise obesity as a chronic disease, and help sufferers to find ways of living with the condition.

He said: "This would require the creation of formal healthcare policies to address what is now an EU-wide epidemic."

At present only Portugal recognises obesity as a chronic disease.

European Obesity Day is aiming to achieve the first successful EU citizens' initiative petition with a call on member states and the EU executive to recognise obesity as a chronic disease.

It also wants the Commission to help develop clinical guidelines on weight loss and to develop a public 'scorecard' of member states' efforts to reduce obesity, encouraging the sharing of best practice. It believes such actions will be easier to achieve once the condition is recognised as a chronic disorder.

David Haslam, a GP and clinical director of the National Obesity Forum in the UK, said the EU should support people with obesity – and claimed there was evidence of a link between obesity, especially in middle-aged women, and the onset of Alzheimer's disease.