The socio-economic determinants affecting obesity in Maltese adults

Abstract

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Obesity is "abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health". The main aim of this dissertation is to analyse how key individual socio-economic determinants affect this phenomenon in Maltese adults, namely gender, age, district, education attainment, income, occupation and household composition.

Data was provided by the Directorate for Health Information and Research through the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) composed of two questionnaires. This enabled a detailed analysis of the obesity problem amongst adults in Malta as presented in this dissertation.

The main conclusions of this study outline that males are more likely to be obese than females. Similarly, as adults of working age get older, the risk of obesity increases. Adults residing in the Southern areas of Malta are also more likely to suffer from the problem. Individuals with higher levels of education attainment and skilled occupations are less likely to be obese. With regards to household composition, smaller and inactive households are more prone to obesity.

This study also puts forward several policy recommendations to tackle the issue and curtail adult obesity rates. This is of utmost importance since obesity rates in Malta are the highest in Europe and of great burden to the Government, employers and the economy as a whole.