Obesity has become in recent years a growing cause of concern for specialists around the world, who catalog it as a critical public health problem. In this context, an information campaign was launched at the national level.
Obesity Photo source Shutterstock
51% of the world's population, i.e. over four billion people, will be obese or overweight in the next 11 years, experts say. Global childhood obesity could more than double from 2020 levels to 208 million boys and 175 million girls by 2035.
In Romania, the “Control Obesity” campaign was launched, an information campaign that will take place throughout the country and that will also involve the training of medical personnel to combat this disease.
Univ. Prof. Dr. Cătălina Poiană, president of the College of Physicians from the Municipality of Bucharest, presented, in Iași, the “Control Obesity” project.
“It is an initiative that aims to sound the alarm about the challenges generated by this “epidemic” of obesity, which risks becoming one of the most critical public health problems globally. Obesity is a disease and must be treated accordingly. We are talking about a medical problem that is, on the one hand, a major risk factor for many chronic non-communicable diseases, but also an aggravating factor for certain ailments”, said the university professor. Dr. Cătălina Poiană.
A disease recognized at EU level
The rector of the “Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Iaşi – Viorel Scripcariu emphasized that obesity has been recognized as a disease at the EU level, especially because it is often perceived as a consequence of an unbalanced diet and sedentarism. And, like a number of other conditions, obesity can be prevented.
“Being a surgeon, I believe that rather than sacrificing an organ through a laborious surgical intervention such as bariatric surgery, it is better to prevent this condition, through an awareness of its existence and through the fact that there are a number of important changes that can be instituted together with an appropriate behavior or way of life, especially that of young people“, explained rector Viorel Scripcariu.
The World Health Organization warns that the most recent data, covering the year 2019, show that approximately five million deaths attributed to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, neurological, digestive and respiratory diseases, respectively, were in people with a weight above normal limits.
“Obesity awareness campaigns are very important for the population. As has been proven internationally, such as, for example, the Karelia program in Finland, which reduced mortality by 20% in the case of cardiovascular diseases. (…) I recently found that young people who come for medical recovery, 35-40 years old, after a myocardial infarction, suffer from obesity“, pointed out the university professor. Dr. Florin Mitu, head of the Cardiology Clinic at the Recovery Hospital in Iasi.
The project takes place during the year 2024 at the national level, in the major university medical centers: Bucharest, Iasi, Timisoara, Târgu Mureş, Oradea, Craiova, Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu.
