Media Clipping — March 29, 2000, The Daily News, Halifax

Obesity big problem in N.S.

Costs to health-care system pegged at between $120-260m

By Shaune MacKinlay

Record-high obesity is taking a lot more than a pound of flesh from Nova Scotia, according to figures released yesterday.

One researcher pegs the direct health-care costs of obesity in this province at a conservative $120 million. Add to that a further estimated $140 million in lost productivity from factors such as missed work time and premature death, and the cost jumps to a whopping $260 million.

Ronald Colman, director of research group GPI Atlantic, said even he was shocked by his findings.

"At that rate, we could eliminate the provincial deficit in three years," he said.

Obesity rates for adults doubled in Nova Scotia between 1985 and 1997, when they hit 37 per cent. Only smoking costs the health-care system more.

GPI Atlantic, a non-profit group that is developing a new economic index for Nova Scotia, was asked by the province's cancer agency to determine how much all those extra Kilograms cost. Colman presented his findings yesterday at a provincially sponsored obesity conference.

He also recommended ways to trim the population's fat, from mandating healthier food in school cafeterias, to placing high-fat warnings on junk food and taxing manufacturers of dietary disasters.

Colman pointed to a program in Singapore schools that reduced obesity rates among young people by up to 50 per cent, by increasing physical activity and improving food quality.

Colman arrived at his figure through some complicated calculations. First, he considered 10 major illnesses, such as hypertension and diabetes that have obesity as a quantifiable risk factor. By knowing the risk factors and how much it costs to treat those illnesses in Canada, he was able to determine how much they cost Nova Scotia based on population.

That cost was $68 million, but Colman adjusted it up to include the cost of treating other less-well-tracked illnesses and capital costs of treating obesity-related illness. He also considered the fact that most people underestimate their weight by about 10 per cent.

He calculated productivity losses using figures from a Health Canada economic burden of illness study.

Provincial cancer commissioner Dr. Andre Padmos said it's estimated 30 to 40 per cent of cancers worldwide could be prevented with healthy diets and exercise.

Weighing the Facts

Figures released yesterday by GPI Atlantic

• 38 per cent of adult Nova Scotians are overweight,compared to 18 per cent in 1985, according to Statistics Canada. Nationally, 29 per cent of the adult population is overweight
• More than 40 per cent of men here are considered significantly overweight, compared with 35 per cent of women.
• More than 50 per cent of cases of adult-onset diabetes are attributed to being overweight, according to a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
• One U.S. study estimated 300,000 Americans die each year as a result of being overweight. If the same population ratio held for Nova Scotia, it would mean 1,000 preventable deaths.
• If all Nova Scotians had healthy weight, the money saved in health care costs could eliminate the provincial deficit in three years.

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