NHS England chief demands food industry acts as obesity-related hospital admissions spike

09 May 2019 --- NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens is urging the food and beverage industry and retailers to tackle obesity by curbing calories and excess sugar and salt in manufacturing. The plea comes as the latest figures reveal obesity-related hospital admissions are shooting up. It also closely follows the country’s newly-appointed Health Minister saying that baby and toddler food will also be a key focus of the UK government’s upcoming Green Paper on the prevention of poor health as the nation’s youngest children are consuming too much sugar.

The NHS is struggling to cope amid a relentless rise in obesity in England where there were around 700,000 obesity-related hospital admissions in 2017/18, according to data from NHS Digital. This amounts to an increase of 100,000 cases compared to the previous year.

“This is the latest evidence that obesity is causing deadly diseases, including 13 types of cancer, heart attacks, strokes and Type 2 diabetes, while putting increasing strain on NHS staff and services,” Stevens says in a statement sent to NutritionInsight.

“The NHS is stepping up to treat these conditions, but it’s clearly time for manufacturers and retailers to protect our children and young people by making further reductions in junk calories and excess sugar and salt that is quietly being added to processed food and drink.”

Obesity prevalence
The 2019 Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet, England, is an annual collection of new and previously published figures on obesity, including hospital admissions, prescription items, prevalence among adults and children as well as physical activity and diet.

New figures in the report show that around two-thirds of the admissions where obesity was recorded as either a primary or secondary diagnosis in 2017/18 were for women (66 percent). Of the 6,627 Finished Consultant Episodes (FCEs) for bariatric surgery in 2017/18, 79 percent of the patients were female. An FCE is a continuous period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider.

Adult obesity prevalence stood at 29 percent in 2017, an increase from 26 percent in 2016. Prevalence of childhood obesity in both children aged 4-5 and aged 10 was over twice as high in the most deprived areas than in the least deprived areas; 13 percent compared to 6 percent in 4-5 year olds year and 27 percent compared to 12 percent in 10 year olds.

In terms of physical activity and diet, 68 percent of men and 64 percent of women aged 19 and over met the government’s physical activity guidelines for adults in 2017/18. The recommendation is that a week of activity should add up to at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity in bouts of 10 minutes or more, or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity spread across the week.

Twenty-one percent of men and 23 percent of women were classed as inactive in 2017/18, while only 20 percent of boys and 14 percent of girls were meeting the physical activity guidelines for children. This states that children aged five to 18 should engage in moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity for at least 60 minutes and up to several hours every day.

Women (32 percent) were more likely to consume the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, than men (26 percent ), while 18 percent of children consumed the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day in 2017.

This figure is also interesting in the context of a new study coming out of the US. Children who were told how food would benefit them in terms they could understand easily ate twice as much healthy food, as opposed to being given the food with no contextual information.

A further US study from the University of Chicago found that obesity can increase the likelihood of aggressive breast cancer because it can “reprogram” immune cells to promote tumor formation, heightening the risk.

The NHS Digital statistics also show that the number of items prescribed by primary care for obesity treatment decreased by 8 percent from 401,000 items in 2017 to 371,000 items in 2018. This continues a downward trend since a peak of 1.45 million items in 2009. The Net Ingredient Cost (NIC) saw an increase for the first time in five years, rising from £6.9 million (US$9 million) in 2017 to £8.1 million (US$10.5 million) in 2018. The NIC is the basic cost of a drug as listed in the Drug Tariff or price lists; it does not include discounts, dispensing costs, prescription charges or fees.

Reacting to the latest figures, the UK’s Obesity Health Alliance also wants to see dramatic changes in government action to restrict junk food promotions and advertising. The organization is also calling for more action to hold industry accountable for high amounts of sugar, salt and fat in food and beverages.

By Gaynor Selby

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