Maltese kids and teens ‘insufficiently active’, says World Health Organisation

A stunning 72.5% of Maltese teens aged 15 and over are insufficiently active, the Word Health Organisation said, in a warning to European countries that overweight was in danger of becoming 'normal' for children and adults across the continent.

And a prevalence of overweight amongst 61% of over-20 year-olds put Malta in the top category of overweight nations in WHO statistics.

The data comes as no news for the island, as EU figures show Greece with the highest proportion of overweight 11-year-olds (33%), followed by Portugal (32%), Ireland and Spain (both 30%).

The silver lining is a forecast that by 2020 less men and women will be obese - 19% of men and 17% of women in Malta; and by 2030, 17% of both men and women will be obese.

The WHO's European regional office issued a series of country profiles at the opening event in Athens of the Greek presidency of the EU. Estimates from the first round (2007/2008) of the WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) show that among 6-year-olds in Malta, 34.3% of boys and 29.3% of girls were overweight and 14.7% and 11.7%, respectively, were obese.

The Czech Republic, Malta and the UK currently have the highest proportions of overweight adults.

In general, children in Europe are just not physically active enough, the WHO says. In 23 out of 36 countries, more than 30% of boys and girls aged 15 or over are not getting enough exercise and eating the wrong sorts of foods.

According to a nationally representative survey carried out in 2008 among individuals aged 15 years or over, 58.5% of Maltese teens and young adults were overweight and 22.3% were obese.

Overweight prevalence estimates for men and women were, respectively, 69.0% and 49.0%. The prevalence of obesity for men and women was 24.3% and 20.6%, respectively.

The prevalence of overweight and obesity among the Maltese population aged 18 years and over in 2010 was 62.3% (males 68.5%; females 57.6%) and 29.6% (males 28.2%; females 32.0%), respectively.