Jul/090
Italian sedentary and obese. Report Osservasalute for 2007
It was released in Rome on Tuesday Osservasalute Report for 2007. The document provides a fairly detailed state of health of the country and the type and distribution of health services on national territory. Data shows in particular how obesity and overweight are likely to become a real health emergency for the country. Since 2002 because the rate of obesity has increased from 8, 5% to 9.9% distributed equally in both sexes, but with a higher incidence in the south than the north. To make matters worse the bad habit of sedentary, with only 20.9 of the population practice sport in a consistent manner, especially young people between 6 and 19 years, and only 10.3% said physical activity occasionally. The less energetic can be found in the south with a share of 58.6% in Sicily. Would also be the men to be more afflicted by problems of overweight?
The report confirms a major (albeit slightly) longevity for women, who live an average of 83.9 years against 78.3 years for men, compared to a country that seems less and less young people: the dubious distinction of the region’s oldest it to Liguria and brands are the longest region with an average of 79.2 years for men and 84.4 years for women. In contrast the figure for the birth rate, which increases and decreases in the north to the south. Not surprising as there is no data that indicate an increase of infectious diseases, especially syphilis and gonorrhea. While the incidence rate of cancer has increased in the south thus approaching that of the north, traditionally the highest. In return, however, throughout the national territory has decreased the mortality rate for this type of disease, mainly due to improvements in preventive services and cancer screening. However, while the spread of mammography screening for women north are 90% for Southern and only 40%.
Unfortunately it does not improve the condition of people with disabilities who do not receive adequate assistance and support. In Italy for 10% of households has a disabled person, 80% of them enjoys no home care service and 70%, especially in the south, does not receive any kind of assistance either public or private. There is a slight improvement in psychiatric disorders, at least as regards the number of admissions since 2001 to date decreased by 4.1%, possibly through the use of antipsychotics, whose consumption is greater in the south where, in contrast is less than the consumption of antidepressants. More worrying is that concerning the increase in the number of people requiring health care for problems related to cocaine addiction, especially in more populous regions: Lazio, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Campania.
Mar/090
Adolescents and risk obesity. Self-esteem plays a key role
Research published on the Archives of Pediatric Medicine and conducted by the Department of Health of New York has established a clear correlation between low self-esteem in young girls and the risk of becoming obese. A study that involved 4400 girls aged 12 to 18 years has shown that adolescents who perceive themselves as unpopular were 69% more likely to become obese than those who perceive themselves as loved and accepted by their peers. It has long known the relationship between obesity and social factors and emotional, but this research, as stated goutham Rao, director of the Center for obesity child hospital in Pittsburgh, has the merit of placing in connection with this disorder lack self-esteem.
But not all experts have enthusiastically welcomed the results of research in New York. Dr. Judith Myers-Walls of Purdue University, for example, believes that it is possible to determine whether the low self-esteem to induce young people to eat more and thus to gain weight or whether instead the very fact of being overweight cause collapse in their self-esteem. In any case, the adolescent obesity is a problem that has wide spread in all industrialized countries and which is necessary to promptly remedy. Only in Italy, as noted Erio Ziglio, head of the WHO Venice, are obese 20% of children between thirteen and seventeen.
The solution can be sought only in the prescription of a slimming diet; you need it, say experts, raising awareness among young people towards greater awareness of themselves and towards adopting a healthier lifestyle. About then the undeniable influence of social and emotional adolescent obesity, Adina Lemeshow, one of the teenagers who participated in the study then became a researcher at the Department of Health in New York, proposes implementing prevention programs that focus too Development, by boys, social skills that help them meet the challenges of daily life requires and that may seem insurmountable at a delicate stage of life such as adolescence.