Obesity Hospital Admissions: 17% Increase Year-on-Year

NHS Digital figures show a 17% increase in obesity hospital admissions year-on-year when looking at the year leading into the global pandemic.

This amounts to almost 150,000 more instances of people being admitted to hospital over the course of a year with conditions whereby obesity was a primary or secondary factor.

A total of 1,022,000 hospital admissions were categorised this way, a rise on the 876,000 the year before.

Although NHS Digital said some of this rise could be down to better reporting of the data, NHS England Medical Director Stephen Powis described the situation as ‘shocking’.

He said; “[These] shocking figures are a growing sign of the nation’s obesity crisis, which is putting hundreds of thousands of people at greater risk of becoming severely ill with Covid, as well as heart attacks, stroke, cancer and other deadly diseases.”

Obesity, and obesity hospital admissions, was put under the spotlight by Prime Minister Boris Johnson after he suffered the effects of Covid last year. Due to being overweight, the PM struggled to overcome the virus, needing intensive care treatment as a result of his poor physical condition at the time.

He promised sweeping measures to combat the health, and social, issue including the banning of junk food advertising online and on social media, although recently fears have grown among health experts that this could be scrapped.

The Government has responded by stating its intention to ban junk food TV adverts before 9pm and has now finished a consultation with affected industries. An announcement on more definitive restrictions will be revealed in the next few weeks.