Two sets of statistics that were released yesterday should serve as a national wake-up call, a call to better look after ourselves and our children.
Health Minister Chris Fearne yesterday unveiled Body Mass Index data collected from tens of thousands of children across the country, which show that 41 per cent of Maltese children are overweight or obese. This was the first time such a comprehensive study had been carried out – and the results are rather disconcerting. From the data, it transpires that the incidence of being overweight is higher in Maltese boys than in girls.
The fact that almost half of our children are overweight or obese has been bandied about in the past, but every time such figures are highlighted they never fail to shock. But do they shock us enough to spur us into urgent action? It seems they don’t because the problem has plagued the country for years on end now.
The statistic was published yesterday as part of the launch of the public information campaign dubbed: ‘Healthy Weight for Life - Mediterranean Diet’. Despite the fact that we here in Malta live as middle of the Mediterranean as one can get, the sad truth is that an unhealthy and ironically non-Mediterranean diet prevails in most households.
The dietary initiative announced yesterday is to encompass outreach programmes at places such as open markets, supermarkets and schools at public spaces like markets, supermarkets and schools, where awareness will be raised on healthy eating and cooking habits. This couples an already ongoing campaign in schools aimed at promoting exercised and fostering lifestyles that incorporate less sedentary practices and more activity amongst children.
A second action announced by the government yesterday was the creation of a task force that is to deliver clinical recommendations in the short term on how obesity should be tackled as a medical issue with medical solutions. This will be coupled with an inter-ministerial committee being established, which will determine holistic solutions to the problem.
The second set of statistics comes from the European Union and co0ncerns the country’s older generations and they show that over 1,000 Maltese nationals are dying each and every year from heart attacks and strokes. In Malta, over 22 per cent of all deaths were down to heart attacks in 2013, while 8.4 per cent can be said of strokes. Those figures had improved since 2000 – by 2.4 per cent as far as heart attacks are concerns, and by 2.3 per cent for strokes. While the falling numbers are positive developments, the fact is that they are not falling fast enough. In fact, within the EU Malta’s heart attack death rate is far above the EU average, it is the seventh-highest in the bloc and it is only the Eastern European states that fare worse than us as far as heart attacks are concerned.
As far as strokes are concerned, Malta fares better. We are below the EU average in terms are ranked 15th in terms of strokes’ proportions of overall deaths. Still, there is plenty of room for improvement.
In the meantime, Malta’s cancer rates remain concerning high, as do our rates of diabetes. This state of affairs affects the entire country – from the young to the middle aged to the elderly – every age group could do with a wake-up call, a jolt to the system and a call to action.
The problem as far as Malta is concerned mainly boils down to the country’s ageing population, a general lack of physical activity and obesity. That Malta’s population is rapidly ageing is a simple and irreversible fact, at least as far as the current discussion goes but we can certainly do a great deal to address the country’s seemingly chronic problems with weight and lack of exercise – particularly as evidenced and amply documented in the younger generation.
Malta also has one the highest diabetes rates in the world, which, again, is directly linked to today’s sedentary lifestyles and less than healthy diets. The good news is that by taking more exercise and eating healthily, we tackle not only the risk of cancers and diabetes, but also a host of other non-communicable diseases in the process.
It is all well and good for government to raise awareness until it is blue in the face, to develop programmes and tuition but at the end of the day, your health and the health of your family is, ultimately, in your own hands. No one will force you to change destructively unhealthy habits, those decisions lie in your hands and your hands alone.