Government unveils anti-obesity plans

The National Health Programme to 2020 has been passed to the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament, the daily Rzeczpospolita reports.

Over 60 percent of Polish men and 40 percent of women are overweight, with obesity afflicting a total of 17 percent of the population, the programme’s authors said.

Obesity annually requires 1.5 million hospital stays and its treatment takes up PLN 14.5 billion (about EUR 3.8 billion), or 21 percent, of the national budget for health care. Polish children, the report notes, are among the fastest group of weight-gainers in Europe.

For the first time a budget has been allocated to combat obesity, with PLN 60 million per year to be set aside. The government also announced the creation of support groups for overweight people and therapeutic teams to help families in which the problem of obesity involves two or more people. (jh/rk)