PLN 60 million for anti-obesity program

The government has filed with the Sejm a National Health Program which aims to tackle obesity amongst Poles by 2020, dailyRzeczpospolita  informed. It is estimated that 61 percent of males and 42 percent of women have excessive body weight and 17 percent of Poles suffer from obesity. The disease is a cause of 1.5 million hospital stays and its treatment costs PLN 14.5 billion a year, a figure that accounts for 21.5 percent of the health budget. The government wants to earmark PLN 60 million annually to address the issue. Creating support groups for obese people, as well as therapeutic groups that will help families in which two or more people have a problem with weight are among planned actions.