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OBESITY

Why does France see more weight loss surgery than the UK and US?

France might not be the country in the world with the most acute obesity problem but the number of people undergoing weight loss surgery has boomed in recent years, new figures show.

Published: 17 May 2018 13:18 CEST
Why does France see more weight loss surgery than the UK and US?
AFP

The number of people in France turning to surgical procedures to help reduce obesity has multiplied by 21 times over the last twenty years, new figures show.

This kind of operation, known in the medical world as “bariatric surgery”, which includes gastric bypass operations, effectively reduces the size of the stomach and can led to dramatic weight loss.

In 1997 only 2,800 operations of this kind were carried out compared to almost 60,000 in 2016 according to a report by the research and statistics agency Drees.

Part of that rise can simply be explained by the rise of obesity in France.

In 1997 some 8 percent of the population fell into the category of obese but by 2016 it was 15 percent.

However figures released last year suggested the growing weight problem in France was more worrying.

 
The figures revealed that over the age of 30, some 56.8 percent of French men are overweight or obese and 40.9 percent of French women of the same age also tip the scales as obese or overweight. 
 
 
However widening waistlines does not explain the boom of weight loss surgery in France given that the UK, where 27 percent of the population are considered obese and even the US, where obesity levels are at 38 percent, sees far fewer operations of this nature per head of population.
 
For example 8.4 French people out of 10,000 have undergone some kind of weight loss surgery compared to 1.2 out of 100,000 people in Britain and 6.1 out of 100,000 people in the US.
 
“Our health system is completely different from that of other countries. We do not limit the use of surgery,” Sébastien Czernichow, head of nutrition service at Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris told Le Figaro newspaper.
 
But in the UK for example a special commission carefully selects patients eligible for the surgery which is around 5,000 a year.
 
Another reason to explain the high numbers is that in France someone can qualify for the operation if their body mass index is over 35kg/M2 but in Denmark the limit is set at 50kg/M2 in other words a person who weighs over 145 kilos who has a height of 1.70 metres.
 
Another key factor is that the France's state health insurance the Securité Sociale covers much of the cost of the surgery, which is not the case in other countries.
 
However some surgeons in France have denounced the “culture of ease” which sees surgery offered as a first resort rather than concrete steps being taken to solve the root causes of rising obesity.
 
Former health minister Marisol Touraine lamented the lack of attention given to preventative health care in France compared to the UK, particularly when it came to smoking and alcohol.
 
France's health authority HAS officially advised that surgery only be undertaken when other treatments have failed such as nutrition advice, diets and psychotherapy.
 
Patients must be well informed in advance says HAS.
 

Member comments

  1. Ever since they banned smoking from restaurants, I expected more obesity.
    It used to be, would you sooner die of heart disease from being obese (USA) or cancer from smoking? (France)
    France is catching up?

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TRAVEL

German beach hotel bans overweight guests

A hotel on Germany’s North Sea coast has banned overweight guests due to worries they’ll break the resorts ‘elegant designer furniture’.

Published: 6 June 2020 17:56 CEST
German beach hotel bans overweight guests
The beach in Cruxhaven, near the Beachhotel Sahlenburg. Photo: DPA

The Beachhotel Sahlenburg in the German city of Cuxhaven is hoping to welcome everyone back to the beach after the coronavirus lockdown ends, however not everyone is welcome on the sand. 

In order to stay at the hotel, you need to be 130 kilograms (286) pounds or below. 

“For reasons of liability, we would like to point out that the interior is not suitable for people with a body weight of more than 130 kg,” says the hotel. 

The reason for the restriction? The hotels elegant design furniture is far too sensitive and cannot support the weight of anyone upwards of 130kg. 

Hotel Operator Angelika Hargesheimer, speaking with German media outlet Buten and Binnen, says her hotel’s classic furniture is not made for big butts. 

“The designer chairs downstairs, they’re real classics. When a person over 130 kilograms sits on it, they sit there with one buttock and the chair does not last long.”

“But I want to have a designer hotel and I want to have nice furniture – not brutal furniture made of oak.”

Once bitten? 

Hargesheimer says she won’t get fooled again when it comes to chubby guests, saying that a larger visitor broke one of her hotel beds previously – which was the moment she decided to bite the bullet. 

She also said that the design of the chairs make them uncomfortable for larger people, while the showers are too small for the big boned. 

Although there were some suggestions that the move was illegal, a legal expert interviewed by Bild said that it would only amount to discrimination if the guests were so obese that they were considered to be disabled. 

“Only if an obese person reaches the threshold of a disability does protection against discrimination exist. Therefore, it should be difficult for those affected to take legal action against provisions such as in the hotel described, with reference to the AGG (General Treatment Act),” Sebastian Bickerich, from the Federal Anti-Discrimination Office, told Bild. 

 

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