In Spain 18 million overweight and obese people add 20% onto national health bill, but is UK worse?

A NEW report has revealed that 18 million overweight and obese Spaniards add a hefty 20% onto the national health bill.

A huge €2.8 billion is spent on battling the conditions, which amount to 7% of the Government’s total annual budget.

In Spain 39.3% of 25-64-year-olds are overweight, with obesity rates at 21.6%.

That is compared to the UK, where 35.6% of adults are overweight and 28.7% are obese.

These statistics for Spain were published in the report ‘Approach to obesity and bariatric surgery’, which is backed by the Spanish Society of Obesity Surgery and the Spanish Society for the Study of Obesity.

It calls obesity ‘one of the most important health problems facing the health system’.

These latest figures follow and investigation by the Mar de Barcelona hospital earlier this year, which found that 80% of men and 55% of women will be overweight by 2030.

Researchers in that study warned the increases would take Spain’s overweight population to 27 million.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity has almost tripled since 1975.