The General Health Insurance Company (VšZP) and the Private Union Health Insurance Company (ZP) record an increase in the number of children with obesity. ZP Trust for TASR stated that the diagnosis of obesity is not registered in its system, as healthcare providers do not show it to the insurance company. According to VšZP, it will be By 2035 half of Slovak children suffer overweight and obesity.
“The forecasts say that within ten years every second child in Slovakia will suffer. Obesity is one of the main risk factors for the emergence of many serious diseases,” VšZP pointed out. A large part of the population in her words of obesity does not perceive as a health problem ARIt is to associate difficulties such as breathing problems, high blood pressure, orthopedic and physical problems or psychological problems.
According to data from VšZP The number of policyholders diagnosed with obesity has increased almost double in the last three years. “However, this is only the number of policyholders who have paid health care for diagnoses related to obesity and excessive nutrition,” Monovated by the insurance company.
The data provided by TASR by the private union health insurance company show that In people aged 40 to 50 years, the number of obese has almost doubled within one year. In 2022, 589 people were treated in this age group for obesity, with 951 in 2023. Overall, 4679 policyholders were treated for obesity in 2023. “The second most affected group is young people aged ten to 19 years,” The specialist of the external communication Union ZP has made Beáta Dupaľová Ksenzsighová. She also added that obesity also affects both men and women.
Matúš Štepiansky, a spokesman for the health insurance company, pointed out that the data that draws on the reported healthcare is not a reliable indicator in this. “This is mainly because the diagnosis of obesity is not reported to us by providers. In this case, it is all to rely on scientific studies that examine the prevalence of obesity. Here, too, we encounter the problem that such epidemiological studies, specifically for the Slovak population, practically do not have, “he said for TASR Štepiansky.
The President of the Slovak Obesitological Association Ľubomíra Fábryová explained that Overweight childhood and adolescence is associated with a higher risk and earlier onset of other chronic diseases. “It also has adverse psychosocial consequences for children and adolescents – it affects school results, social ties and reduces self -confidence,” zoomed.
VšZP said that according to data of the World Obesitological Association in 2019 Obesity treatment per capita per capita was approximately EUR 473, and in 2020 the amount increased to almost EUR 500. “The forecast for 2030 says that the treatment of obesity will be on one Slovak for 830 euros,” She made VšZP. As the Union ZP further specified, the cost of treating obesity in 2023 was around EUR 412,000.
