Obesity in Malta is a contemporary health issue. This problem is connected to several other illnesses and economic costs for the government. The causes for Malta's obesity are various and one of the leading aspects is physical inactivity. Malta's authorities declare that obesity is one of the major preventable causes of other illnesses and finally, leading to an earlier death. In 2014, with the publication of the Eurostat statistics, Malta's obesity problem caught the national, as well as international attention intensively. In the same year, Malta's Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Chris Fearne, announced that the government is committed to tackle the prevailing obesity problem in Malta. Malta appears to be the most obese country within the European Union - according to Eurostat and the World Health Organization. With 26% - meaning one out of four adults - being obese, Malta is far ahead on the obesity scale, comparable to other EU countries. For children, the situation is worse in Malta, as 40% of all children are obese there. The prevalence of obesity has increased from 23% in 2002 to 25% in 2015. In general, Eurostat bases its obesity observation on a BMI calculation. In regard to this method, the definition of obesity is that a person needs to have a higher BMI of 30 in order to be categorized as obese. Important findings of the Eurostat statistics included the systematic difference between men and women concerning the obesity level. The proportion of men being obese, with 28.1%, was much higher than that of women in Malta, with 23.9%. The age also plays an important role in Malta's obesity problem. Whereas only one young adult person out of 10 is considered to be obese in Malta (12%), one out of three older persons in Malta (33.6%) is categorized as obese. Education plays a certain role in Malta's obesity problem. In almost every EU member state, the share of obesity decreases with education level. 30.3% of Malta's obese population come from a low education level, and only 15.8% of people with a high education level were being classified as obese.
Effects Obesity tends to lead to a number of non-communicable diseases and impacts individuals through a lower quality and length of life. The mental effects of obesity should not be ignored either: depression, discrimination and lower educational attainment are psychological aspects related to the physical negative consequences. Regarding the subsequent illnesses of obesity, the chances of being affected by diabetes type two, high blood pressure, heart diseases, a stroke, as well as some forms of cancer are way higher. Furthermore, there exists evidence that obesity and mortality risks are positively related. Malta, contradictory to this statement, has one of the highest life expectancies within Europe. Its life expectancy at birth was 81.9 years in 2015 and therefore above the EU average of 80.6 years. Nevertheless, cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause in Malta for men and women. Additionally, death rates from ischaemic heart disease in Malta remain above the EU average, but have shown a relatively consistent downward trend. More than a quarter of all deaths from ischaemic heart disease were premature, occurring in people aged under 75.
Costs for the Government But not only the health and quality of life of individuals is negatively influenced by obesity, but the costs associated with obesity are also weighing on the shoulders of several stakeholders, inter alia the government and the society at large. Based on the 2015 EHIS results, the cost of obesity in Malta has been estimated at 36.3 million euro. 23.8 million euros are thereby direct costs, divided into primary care, specialist care, hospital care, cost of allied healthcare professionals, pharmaceutical care, weight loss interventions and public interventions. The indirect costs, amounted to 12.5 million euro, consist of absenteeism, presenteeism, government subsidies, forgone earnings and forgone taxes. Different scholars point out a figure of 23.7 million euro for overweight and obesity in Malta, including herewith hospital costs and the cost of visits to general practitioners and specialists. Furthermore, the inability to stop the growing levels of obesity will probably result in a loss up to 90,000 hours of work for Malta due to the connected health complications. Besides, it is also estimated that, if the rising percentages of obesity will not be stopped, the costs of obesity will rise to 41.4 million euro which is equal to 110 euro per capita. In the long term, the figure could even rise to 46.5 million euros by 2050.
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