British women top European obesity scales

BRITISH women and Maltese men topped European obesity ratings according to data that also undermined the belief that all French women are thin.

The figures released by the EU’s statistics agency showed the proportion of obese adults ranging from 8% to 23.9% for women and 7.6% to 24.7% for men.

Though a worry for public health, the rates are well below those in the US, where the corresponding figure was 28.8% for women and 27.6% for men in 2009, Eurostat said.

Ireland was one of seven European countries where data was unavailable.

The lowest shares were recorded in Romania, with 8% for women and 7.6% for men, Italy, with 9.3% and 11.3%, Bulgaria, at 11.3% and 11.6%, and France, 12.7% and 11.7%.

Highest proportions for women were in Britain, with 23.9%, Malta with 21.1%, Latvia with 20.9% and Estonia at 20.5%.

While men in the former British colony of Malta topped the chart at 24.7%, they were closely followed by Britain at 22.1%, Hungary with 21.4% and the Czech Republic at 18.4%.

“There is no systematic difference in obesity between women and men,” said Eurostat, adding the proportion for women was higher in eight EU nations, higher for men in 10 and equal in one.

Meanwhile a study has found Switzerland has the highest incidence of ‘foreign bodies’ being left inside patients after surgeons sew them up.

The international report card comparing health-care systems said Australia was second and Canada third.

Surgical teams across Canada need to do a better job of implementing existing safety procedures, said Brenda Tipper, from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

But Tipper was quick to point out that Canada may seem to have more mistakes because of the accuracy of the reporting itself.

Tipper admitted the numbers in the Health at a Glance report are alarming.

In addition, accidental puncture or laceration during surgery was the highest among the 17 countries where results were reported, at 525 per 100,000 hospitalisations.

The rate of foreign bodies — including sponges and metal instruments — left in during a procedure, at 9.7 per 100,000 hospitalisations, was well over the next-highest G7 result of 5.7 for Britain.