OECD Health Working Papers

ISSN :: 1815-2015 (online)
DOI :: 10.1787/18152015

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This series is designed to make available to a wider readership health studies prepared for use within the OECD. Authorship is usually collective, but principal writers are named. The papers are generally available only in their original language - English or French - with a summary in the other.

Improving Lifestyles, Tackling Obesity: The Health and Economic Impact of Prevention Strategies

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Authors:

Franco Sassi¹, Michele Cecchini¹, Jeremy Lauer², Dan Chisholm²

Author Affiliations

1: OECD, France

2: World Health Organisation, Switzerland

Publication Date

20 Nov 2009

Bibliographic information

No.:: 48

Pages

108

DOI

10.1787/220087432153

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Overweight and obesity rates have been increasing relentlessly over recent decades in all industrialised countries, as well as in many lower income countries. OECD analyses of trends over time support the grim picture drawn in the international literature and so do projections of overweight and obesity rates over the next ten years. The circumstances in which people have been leading their lives over the past 20-30 years, including physical, social and economic environments, have exerted powerful influences on their overall calorie intake, on the composition of their diets and on the frequency and intensity of physical activity at work, at home and during leisure time. Many countries have been concerned not only about the pace of the increase in overweight and obesity, but also about inequalities in their distribution across social groups, particularly by socio-economic status and by ethnic background.

JEL Classification:

D61: Microeconomics / Welfare Economics / Allocative Efficiency; Cost–Benefit Analysis
D63: Microeconomics / Welfare Economics / Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
H51: Public Economics / National Government Expenditures and Related Policies / Government Expenditures and Health
I12: Health, Education, and Welfare / Health / Health Production
I18: Health, Education, and Welfare / Health / Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health