Posted on 30/11/2009 in Medical Government/ NHS related news Around one in four Scottish adults are in need of obesity treatment and many more are overweight, new figures have revealed.
According to statistics for 2008 disclosed by the public health minister Shona Robison, 66.3 per cent of 16 to 64-year-old men and 59.6 per cent of women in the same age group were overweight.
The figures also show that 24.9 per cent of men and 26.5 per cent of women were obese last year, while more than one-third of boys and one-quarter of girls aged two to 15 could benefit from losing weight.
Conservative public health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said that Scotland needs a "complete change of culture" to deal with its obesity "epidemic".
"This problem did not appear overnight, nor will it disappear overnight," he argued.
Ms Robison said that the Scottish government views obesity as a "high priority" and has implemented a range of initiatives to tackle the problem.
These statistics follow a British Heart Foundation report that claims parents are failing to recognise their children's low levels of physical activity.
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