Written answers

Tuesday, 18 October 2005

Department of Health and Children

Health Strategy

9:00 pm

Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)
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Question 233: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children if her attention has been drawn to the findings of the recent international Shape of the Nations survey into the correlation between waist size and heart disease; the action she proposes to take to safeguard the public from the consequences of waistline obesity; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28994/05]

Photo of Seán PowerSeán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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The Shape of the Nations survey was commissioned by Sanofi-Aventis, a pharmaceutical company and was conducted in 27 countries, excluding Ireland, during July 2005. The survey was carried out among the general public, people identified as at risk for heart disease, and primary care physicians, to assess knowledge and understanding of the increased risk of heart disease posed by excess abdominal fat.

The survey concluded that six out of ten physicians recognise abdominal fat as a significant risk factor for heart disease. However, only a minority of the public is aware of the waist size that puts them at risk for heart disease and fewer than one in five people can expect to have their waist circumference measured by their doctor.

The heart health strategy, Building Healthier Hearts 1999, acknowledged that fat deposits in the abdominal area were a better predictor of coronary artery disease than the degree of obesity. According to the 2004 report of the national task force on obesity, Obesity: the Policy Challenges, obese individuals with excess fat deposited around the abdomen are more likely to develop health problems. The report made a number of recommendations in relation to the measurement of waist circumference, for example, that it be part of routine clinical health care practice and that this information be included in a national database of growth measurements.

An implementation strategy for the report is being developed by the Department of Health and Children in order to progress implementation of the recommendations.

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