Obesity alarm in Italy, one in 4 children overweight

In Italy, 26.7 per cent of children and young people between the ages of 3 and 17, i.e. more than one in four, are overweight, a condition that affects more than one in three adolescents in seven of the ten regions of southern Italy, which are well above the national average, with Campania at 36.5 per cent followed by Calabria (35.8 per cent), Basilicata (35 per cent) and Sicily (33.8 per cent). On the contrary, the lowest percentages are observed in the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano (15.1% and 17.4%), Friuli-Venezia Giulia (18.4%) and Lombardy (19.5%). This is the picture that emerges from the tenth report on obesity in Italy, edited by Auxologico Irccs, presented at the Suor Orsola Benincasa University in Naples, and produced thanks to the work of some thirty Italian and foreign clinicians and researchers.

'Obesity is a major public health problem,' says Health Minister Orazio Schillaci, 'and as the report shows, it also affects children. That is why it is essential to act on prevention, through correct lifestyles'. According to the latest WHO estimates, adults with obesity number 890 million (16%) and 2.5 billion were overweight (43%) in 2022. ISTAT data for 2023 speak of almost 23 million adults - almost half of the population over the age of 18 (46.3%) - who in Italy have excess weight, i.e. a body mass index of 25 or more. Of these, about 5.8 million (or 11.8%) are affected by obesity, having a body mass index of 30 or more. 'In recent decades,' the report states, 'obesity has been steadily increasing at a global level, to the point where it is now considered a true epidemic, with all the implications this entails for public health. All this entails, the report goes on to emphasise, 'a major commitment in terms of health and public expenditure', since 'the metabolic syndrome, if not addressed and treated in the correct time and manner at specialised health centres, inevitably leads to complications affecting practically all the vital organs of the patient suffering from obesity'.

It is therefore of paramount importance to treat patients already suffering from the disease, but also to implement prevention and early diagnosis of the prodromes that can lead to severe obesity, with all the corollaries of related alterations and diseases. This is why prevention is fundamental. And 'the activities of the Ministry of Health and the law that in Italy, the first in the world, recognises obesity as a chronic disease, providing significant interventions in the prevention and treatment of obesity, but also for the specific training of healthcare personnel, go in this direction,' adds Schillaci. "Obesity and eating disorders in general are priority lines of research and clinical intervention at our IRCCS, which has been operating for half a century now," emphasises Auxologico President Mario Colombo, "a unicum in Italy for the number of clinical cases treated in its hospitals and territorial centres, and which sees in the near future the expansion of its presence in the Lazio and Calabria Regions".