Cost of living crisis fuelling county’s obesity problem

Concerns have been voiced that the cost of living crisis is contributing towards high levels of obesity in Shropshire.

The comments were made at a meeting of council, health and third sector leaders on Thursday, after a harrowing report revealed that two thirds of adults and a third of children in the county are currently overweight.

Members of Shropshire Council’s health and wellbeing board said the figures showed the scale of the problem as they signed off a draft five-year ‘Healthier Weight Strategy for Shropshire’ to go out to public consultation.

The document, drawn up by public health officers, sets out a raft of measures to encourage and support residents to improve their food and exercise habits.

Presenting the report to the board, public health registrar Victoria Stanford said the number of obese and overweight people in the county was “a growing problem”.

Dr Stanford said: “We know excess weight leads to a multitude of health problems, that it reduces life expectancy, but also prolongs the amount of time that people are living in poor health.

“All of this increases the cost to the NHS and to healthcare, but also to social care.

“We know that social care costs are about double for someone who is experiencing obesity.”

Dr Stanford said promoting healthy lifestyle choices to prevent people becoming overweight in the first place was “key”.

She also highlighted the impact of deprivation on obesity levels, with those living in the county’s most deprived areas twice as likely to be obese than those living in more well off areas.

Dr Sandford said: “We have rates that are higher than the national average for obesity in Shropshire.

“We know our highest rates are in our most deprived areas and we know this is in the context of living in a low wage economy, with rising levels of children in poverty and higher than average levels of food insecurity in our county.”

Dr Sandford said it was not the case that Shropshire residents do not care about their health – but they are faced with “access and cost barriers to living actively” and to accessing “healthy and nutritious and affordable food”.

Citizens Advice Shropshire chief executive Jackie Jeffrey, who represents the county’s voluntary sector on the board, said recent research had found that one in five people are now living with food insecurity.

Ms Jeffrey said: “With the cost of living crisis it’s getting worse and actually, the cheapest food is the worst food for people.

“It’s not just about people who can’t cook, it’s about having access to that wider food economy and access to good quality food.”

Ms Jeffrey said there was an increasing dependency on food banks because household food budgets were the only outgoing that people could cut back on.

She said Church Stretton food bank for example was spending £500 a week on top of food donations to provide parcels for those experiencing hardship.

Ms Jeffrey also said there were people across the county missing out on vital support because of a lack of awareness of schemes such as healthy start vouchers and pension credit.

The strategy will now go out to public consultation, after which it will come back to the health and wellbeing board for endorsement before going before the council’s cabinet for adoption.