Government health profile indicates increases in diabetes

Wed, 28 Jan 2009
The third Health Profile of England conducted by the government indicates strong increases in diseases including diabetes, child obesity and Chlamydia. However, despite these threats to wellbeing, general improvements of health and life expectancy were reported.

The Department of Health documents indicates that some 15.4% of children are obese, up by some 13.8 per cent on figures from five years ago. This is obviously contributing to the type 2 diabetes epidemic in the UK, and indicates that the future could see even greater diabetes population leaps.

King’s Fund Research Fellow in public health, Dr. Tammy Boyce, reportedly commented: "Tackling obesity is a long-term challenge and even effective local programmes will not deliver big improvements in national figures right away. The government and the NHS must continue to focus their efforts on supporting people to change their engrained bad behaviours and maintain healthier lifestyles. Increases in exercise rates and consumption of fruit and vegetables are encouraging but lack of progress in reducing childhood obesity is a concern as unhealthy habits are learnt at a young age."

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