Paris (AFP)

The obesity responsible for diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, reduces life expectancy and is expensive, but investing in prevention is profitable, says an OECD report released Thursday on 52 countries.

Prevention of obesity pays off: every dollar spent generates up to $ 6 in return on investment, according to OECD analysis.

Overweight is responsible for an average of 70% of all diabetes treatment costs, 23% of cardiovascular disease costs and 9% of cancer costs in the 36 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD, which is also projecting over the next three decades, estimates that the treatment of overweight-related diseases will cost a total of $ 425 billion a year to the 52 countries analyzed.

By 2050, 92 million premature deaths from obesity-related diseases are expected to occur in OECD, G20 and EU-28 countries, according to the report.

The reduction in life expectancy related to overweight in the next three decades (2020-2050) will have the greatest impact (4.2 years lost) in Mexico, followed by Russia and Poland (3.9 years) ) followed by the United States (3,7). France (2.3 years lost) is below the projected average of nearly three years for the European Union (2.9) and the OECD (2.7).

More than half of the population in 34 of the 36 OECD countries is overweight and almost one in four is obese.

Average adult obesity rates in OECD countries increased from 21% in 2010 to 24% in 2016, so that an additional 50 million people are now obese. In 2016, adult obesity was 27.8% in the United Kingdom, 23.8% in Spain, 24.9% in Greece and below the EU average in Belgium (21.1% ) and in France (21.6%).

Countries like the United States spend 14% of their health budget on obesity, overweight and related diseases, Germany 11% and France about 5%.

This equates to US $ 645, 411 and 352 for the United States, Germany and the Netherlands per capita per year, taking into account differences in purchasing power.

The OECD calls for more effective action to stem the epidemic of obesity and overweight and puts forward several ways to achieve this: a 20% reduction in calories in foods high in sugar, salt, calories and calories. saturated fats could prevent 1.1 million cases of chronic disease per year by 2050, according to an analysis that included 42 countries. This measure would save them $ 13.2 billion a year by reducing health expenditures and increasing annual GDP by 0.5%

© 2019 AFP