Britain's obesity rates raise cause for concern

A quarter of all deaths in England over the past three decades had obesity as an underlying cause, according to a new study.

Figures published in the European Journal of Public Health indicate that between 1995 and 2006, obesity-related death rates rose by an average of 7.5 per cent for men and four per cent for women year-on-year.

The prevalence of obesity in Britain has almost trebled in the last quarter of a century, particularly in urban areas, placing an increasing burden on the NHS.

Commenting on the UK's growing obesity epidemic, Dr Dean Marshall, chairman of the British Medical Association's (BMA) Scottish General Practitioner's Committee, said: "We've seen the numbers rocketing over the past few years.

"So clearly what the concern has always been is that the consequences of obesity, like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, are increased."

The BMA recently reported that this trend looks set to continue with one in five children in the UK being overweight and one in ten classified as obese.

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