Women top the scales for obesity

The Health and Social Care Information Centre showed 60 people in the Kirklees Primary Care Trust area were admitted to hospital with obesity as the primary reason in 2012/13.

Of those, 14 were male and 46 were female.

Nationally, obesity admissions for women were more than twice as high as those for men, with 10,957 patients admitted – 2,950 men and 8,007 women.The latest figures mark a huge increase on a decade ago when there were only 1,280 admissions in 2002/03.

It is believed the difference in admissions between men and women is down to differing attitudes to health.

HSCIC chief executive officer Alan Perkins said: “Obesity has been a public health issue for many years and can increase the risk of disease and long-term illness.

“The past ten years of data show hospitals have dealt with considerably more women for obesity than men and it will be interesting to see if this pattern changes in coming years.”

Head of Health Improvement for Kirklees Council Tony Cooke said: “We are prioritising our work around food and nutrition with programmes which mean that no matter where they live people in Kirklees can access healthy, affordable, sustainable and local food.

“This coupled with projects to help people make informed choices about the type and amount of food they eat and encouraging them to take part in regular physical activity will help tackle the issues around obesity locally.”