The Ministry of Health warns: the dangerous ingredients in the roll zero/Walla system
One in three men and one in four women in Israel are overweight - this is according to the report of the National Program for Quality Indicators for Community Medicine for 2022. The report also shows that obesity among the youth has also increased and reached close to 13%, especially among the low socio-economic status.
The social disparities were also found in preliminary examinations for breast and uterine cancer, so that the lower class members were examined less and exposed to more diseases.
Prof. Ronit Calderon, who heads the director of the program, states: "The corona virus is an encouraging factor, because of the closures. People, especially children, engaged in less aerobic activity and ate more. To this we will add an increase in the prices of fruits and vegetables, which makes a healthy diet less accessible, and an addiction to screens that reduces activity. These trends are expected to continue, in particular with the abolition of the tax on sugary drinks. It should be noted that the only population in which we did not encounter a trend of increasing obesity but a slight decrease, is the population of diabetics, probably thanks to drug treatment."
In 2022, the obesity rate among children and teenagers will increase/ShutterStock
The report shows that almost 60% (58.6%) of the adult population in Israel aged 20-64 are overweight and obese, despite efforts to curb the increase in obesity rates.
In 2022, there was another increase in the proportion of people suffering from obesity.
More than a quarter of women in Israel aged 20-64 (26.5%) suffer from obesity.
The obesity rate among men is 23.2%.
A significant gap is found in the obesity rate of women from the lowest socioeconomic status (33.9%) compared to women from the highest socioeconomic status (18.1%);
Similar differences were also demonstrated in men
- 25.9% versus 18.3% respectively.
The report shows an alarming figure according to which in 2022 there was an increase in obesity rates among children and teenagers. After a constant decrease in obesity rates among children aged 7 in 2015-2019, in 2019 the rate of children in this age group suffering from obesity was 6.9%. In 2022 the rate increased to 8.5%.
The prevalence rate of obesity among youth aged 14-15 increased consistently between the years 2017-2022, from 10.2% in 2017 to 12.8% in 2022. Boys and girls belonging to the lowest socio-economic status had rates The highest obesity rates (17.4% and 12.4% respectively) The lowest obesity rates were observed among boys and girls belonging to the highest social status (9.1% and 8.0% respectively).
More in Walla!
Virtual reality therapy: a treatment for coping with anxiety
in collaboration with zap doctors
A significant gap in the obesity rate between low and high socio-economic status.
Considered Woman/ShutterStock
On the other hand, in 2022 the underweight rate of the youth aged 14-15 remained stable at 3.6% (in 2019 the underweight rate was 3.5%).
Boys suffer from underweight 1.5 times more than girls (4.0% in boys compared to 2.6% in girls).
Even among children aged 7, the rate of thinness remains unchanged compared to 2019 and stood at 4.2% in 2022. The rates of thinness were higher among children from a low socio-economic status - a figure that can indicate nutritional insecurity.
The report showed the opposite trend among the elderly, and it was found that there is a significant decrease in the weight of the elderly.
The percentage of the elderly who lost at least 10% of their weight over two years has increased since 2018 from 6.2% to 7.9% in 2022. The older the subjects were, the higher the rate of weight loss, but no significant differences were found between the different socioeconomic strata .
Increase in the proportion of smokers aged 16-74 in Israel.
Cigarettes/ShutterStock
The report also examined the proportion of smokers in Israel and found that 21% of the population in Israel aged 16-74 smoke.
This figure is on the rise compared to 2021, when the proportion of smokers was 20.9%.
Despite the efforts of the last few years, smoking rates in Israel are still high, and the trend is not only unstoppable - but growing.
In 2022, 29.1% of men and 13.4% of women smoke.
Also among the smokers it was found that men from a low socioeconomic status smoke almost twice as much compared to men from a high socioeconomic status (35.4% vs. 18.3% respectively).
On the other hand, for women, the trend is the opposite - women from a low socioeconomic status smoke less than women from a high status (7.6% vs. 12.9%).
The lower class were examined less and exposed to more diseases.
Illustration/ShutterStock
Equally worrying data are the social disparities in the performance of preliminary tests for breast cancer and colonoscopy.
The data shows that in 2022, 71.8% of women aged 50-74 performed the test compared to 72.1% of women in 2021. This is a slight decrease, but the test performance rates are lower than in 2018 and 2019 when the performance rates were 72.5% and 72.3% respectively.
The higher the socioeconomic status, the correspondingly higher are the mammogram performance rates.
In 2022, 76.8% of women in the highest socioeconomic status will have a mammogram compared to only 65.4% among women in the lowest socioeconomic status.
The same trend is found in the colonoscopy tests.
In 2022, the rate of performing screening tests for early detection of the colon screening at the ages of 50-74 remains similar to 2021 and was 64.1%.
The highest rate was among men (70.2%) and women (68.8%) belonging to the highest socioeconomic status, while the lowest rate was observed among men (56.1%) and women (60.9%) belonging to the lowest socioeconomic status.
Prof. Nachman Ash, chairman of the Institute for Health Policy Research, which leads the program for quality indicators for community medicine, said: "The finding that worries me the most in the annual indicators report is the increase in the obesity rate of children.
We will meet these children in the coming years with chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.
We must act decisively to eradicate this epidemic.
Increase health education in schools and reduce the consumption of unhealthy drinks and foods.
This is a national problem and not just a problem of the health system."
More on the same topic:
obesity
Obesity
smoking
Colonoscopy