Hong Kong launches 3-year action plan to help residents fight the flab

Hong Kong has launched its first action plan on weight management, aiming to reduce the proportion of people who are overweight or obese to less than half the population in three years from the current 51.3 per cent of adults.On Wednesday, World Obesity Day, the Department of Health announced more than 40 measures, ranging from installing more weighing scales in government venues to exploring the inclusion of novel weight-loss injections in the drug formulary, in a bid to reverse the rising trend of obesity in the city.The proportion of people who are obese or overweight has been rising over the past decades, from 37.2 per cent in 2004, to 47 per cent in 2014 and 51.3 per cent in 2022.A study in 2022 found that more than two-thirds of people who were overweight did not know they were, with 40 per cent having taken no action to manage their weight in the previous 12 months.Edwin Tsui Lok-kin, controller of the Centre for Health Protection, said the focus of the first year was raising awareness about obesity, a major risk factor for chronic illnesses and 13 types of cancer. Awareness was the starting point of intervention, he said.“We hope to truly change the public’s perception of weight management, and provide support accordingly through different stakeholders in the community and different government departments,” Tsui said.