Italy
Food & Nutrition 3.2 Go Global
Italy is known for its generally very good health, considering the fact that it has the world's 4th highest life expectancy, low infant mortality, relatively healthy cuisine and diet, and healthcare system that is ranked 2nd according to WHO (World Health Organization) and which has the third best medical performance worldwide. As with any developed country, Italy has adequate and sufficient water and food distribution, and levels of nutrition and sanitation are high. (Health in Italy)
Obesity
The prevalence of overweight in children has increased in almost all countries for which data are available. Obesity and overweight have increased worldwide and even more dramatically in economically developed countries and in urbanized populations. The World Health Organization (WHO) has described obesity as the worst non-infectious epidemic in history.
Italy is well known for it’s healthy Mediterranean diet, but recent research shows alarming numbers showing that Italy has a higher proportion obese children than anywhere else in Europe. While the rest of the world is swapping their junk food for the healthy traditional Italian diet with lots of fruits and vegetables, the Italians themselves forget their own eating habits and step over from home-made meals and snacks to low-cost, calorie-packed fast food. More than a third – 36 percent – of Italian children nowadays is overweight or obese by the age of eight (Day, 2011) More than half of the obese 6-year-old children remain obese in adulthood, while only 10 % of children of the same age and normal weight become obese in adulthood. At the national level, 24 % of 8- to 9-year-old children are overweight and 12 % are obese, according to IOTF criteria. Childhood overweight not only increases the risk of obesity in adulthood, but is also the leading cause of pediatric hypertension and is associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
A recent study in Milan among one hundred and nine primary schools. The survey was carried out in all primary schools using the service of “Milano Ristorazione” public catering service, which is a provider of lunchtime meals, in March 2008. The questionnaire was delivered to the students’ families after the authorization of the Italian Department Educational School. The final units were families with school-age children (ages 6–11 years). Some of the results of this study are shown in the figures below.
Italy is known for its generally very good health, considering the fact that it has the world's 4th highest life expectancy, low infant mortality, relatively healthy cuisine and diet, and healthcare system that is ranked 2nd according
Childhood obesity in Italy is distributed differentially across the country (north, center and south), and the prevalence in the south is twice that in the north.
The data obtained in this survey reveal a better health situation than that of the Italian average with regard to both overweight and obesity levels. Almost all the parents seemed to be of normal weight (75.0 %), 16.8 % were overweight and 4.0 % were obese. Comparing this with the Italian average. which indicates that normal-weight adults are 51.5 % and overweight and obese adults are 35.5 and 9.9 %, respectively, these data present a situation of relatively better health for this sample.
The figures below show the average overweight and obesity rates in Italy
1. Obesity rates are low in Italy, relative to most OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, but are very high among children. About 1 in 10 people is obese in Italy, significantly less than the OECD average of 1 in 6. More than 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women are overweight. OECD projections indicate that overweight rates will increase by a further 5% within ten years. In Italy, 1 in 3 children is overweight, one of the highests rate in the OECD.
Health
2. Large socio-economic disparities in obesity exist, both in men and women. Women with poor education in Italy are 3 times more likely to be overweight than more educated women. Disparitiesare smaller in men, but still higher than in many other OECD countries. Poorly educated men are 1.3 times more likely to be overweight than more educated ones.
3. Individual prevention programmes could avoid up to 50 000 deaths from chronic diseases every year. Deaths avoided could increase to 75 000 if different interventions were combined in a comprehensive prevention strategy. An organised programme of counselling of obese people by their family doctors would also lead to an annual gain of over 70 000 years of life in good health.
4. How much does prevention cost? How much does it save? Most prevention programmes would cost less than EUR 100 m every year, with individual counselling by family doctors costing up to EUR 580 m. Most prevention programmes will cut health expenditures for chronic diseases, but only by a relatively small margin (up to EUR 72 m per year).
5. Is prevention cost-effective? Prevention can improve health at a lower cost than many treatments offered today by OECD health systems. In Italy, almost all of the prevention programmes examined will be cost-effective in the long run – relative to internationally accepted standards corresponding to around EUR 35 000 per year of life gained in good health. However, some programmes will take a longer time to produce their health effects and therefore will be less cost-effective in the short run.
Smoking
Smoking in Italy has decreased greatly in the past decades for men, yet women have had a less definitive pattern. From a country where in 1966 a 68.5% average of the male population smoked, this has gone down to a ~37% average in 1991. Yet, for women, it increased from ~15% for women in 1966, to ~16.5%, notably in the centre, where it has gone up from 15% to 20.1%
References
http://data.oecd.org/italy.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3664740/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_in_Italy
http://data.oecd.org/healthrisk/overweight-or-obese-population.htm
http://data.oecd.org/healthrisk/daily-smokers.htm