WITH Christmas out of the way, and the New Year just around the corner, Public Health England is warning that eight out of 10 middle aged people in south-east England either weigh too much, drink too much or don’t exercise enough.

PHE’s One You campaign is reaching out to the 83% of 40 to 60 year olds (87% of men and 79% of women) who are either overweight or obese, exceed the Chief Medical Officer’s (CMO) alcohol guidelines or are physically inactive.

Health research shows that in the South East 44,756 people were admitted to hospital for an issue relating to alcohol; and more than 3,000 people die prematurely to liver disease.

Whilst smoking is decreasing nationally, almost one in six people in the South East still smoke.

New data from the Health Survey for England 2015 also shows a worrying picture for the South East’s health in terms of adult weight with 66% of adult men now classified as ‘overweight including obese’ and 25% officially ‘obese’.  

Among women 57% are ‘overweight including obese’ with 27% meeting the ‘obese’ criteria.

Nationally obesity in adults has increased by 16% in the last 20 years2, with many adults unable to identify what a ‘healthy’ body looks like[2]. This suggests obesity has become the new normal.

People in the South East are being urged to take a moment to consider their health and the simple steps they can take to improve it in the run up to the New Year, by taking the One You online quiz.

The quiz, called ‘How Are You’, takes your lifestyle information, gives you a health score and then links to free localised, personalisable information, apps and tools. 

Dr Alison Barnett, deputy centre director for Public Health England South East, said: “We know people can be busy with work and and family life and sometimes their own health can become the least of their priorities.

“The How Are You Quiz will help anyone who wants to take a few minutes to take stock and find out quickly where they can take a little action to make a big difference to their health.”

“It is vitally important that we work to help people to eat better, be more active, stop smoking and consider their drinking. By working together we can improve the health of people across South East England.”

Across the country more than 1.1 million people have taken the quiz so far and where appropriate, been directed to download our apps like Couch to 5K, Alcohol Checker and Easy Meals.

Nearly a quarter of a million people have subsequently downloaded Couch to 5K.

These sit alongside PHE’s other online tools like the Heart Age tool which gives you your ‘heart age’ based on you age and lifestyle and we would also encourage people to take up their NHS Health Check invitation when they receive it.

The diabetes rate among this age group also doubled in this period in England3. Obese adults are more than five times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who are a healthy weight (a body mass index between 18.5 and 25).

Ninety per cent of adults with diabetes have Type 2.

The ‘How Are You’ quiz: http://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/how-are-you

The Heart Age tool can be found here: https://www.nhs.uk/tools/pages/heartage.aspx