HONG KONG: Earlier this month, Hong Kong launched a three-year plan to fight obesity that involves awareness, behaviour change, and long-term maintenance. This is the first territory-wide obesity strategy.
This comes as rising rates have led to what public officials consider an obesity epidemic. In 2004, 37% of adults in Hong Kong were obese or overweight. By 2022, the figure had risen to 51.3%.
In a statement issued on March 4, the government cited the recommendation of the WHO Western Pacific Region for Asian adults, which said that adults with a Body Mass Index (BMI) between 23 and less than 25 are considered overweight, while those with a BMI of 25 or above are considered obese.
For Caucasians, a BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight, and 30 and above is considered obese. There are lower BMI cutoffs for Asians because, in general, they experience higher health risks, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, at lower BMI levels than Caucasians.
Obesity is a risk factor for diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke, and at least 13 types of cancer, including breast, colorectal, kidney, liver, and pancreatic cancer.
Women who are overweight have almost three times the risk, and men almost twice the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Additionally, being overweight is associated with other health conditions, including osteoarthritis and chronic back pain.
Alarmingly, a 2022 study showed that over two-thirds of the people who qualify as overweight according to their BMI are unaware of it. Two in five of them made no effort over the last year to manage their weight.
Among the 40 measures in Hong Kong’s action plan, some even involve school-age children, who will be taught about weight management and healthy living, including developing the habit of monitoring their weight at school.
Other measures include public campaigns, such as “10,000 steps a day” that encourages Hongkongers to move more, additional weighing stations in public places, and even weight-loss drugs such as GLP-1 as part of public healthcare.
The focus of the first year is awareness, for the second year it’s changes in behaviour, and for the third year it’s long-term maintenance.
“We hope to truly change the public’s perception of weight management, and provide support accordingly through different stakeholders in the community and different government departments,” Edwin Tsui Lok-kin, controller of the Centre for Health Protection, told South Asia Morning Post, adding, “Weight management is not blindly losing weight, but finding a balance in diet and exercise. Walking a few more steps or running to catch the bus are also forms of exercise.” /TISG
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