Snoek and cycling do it for Cape Town
The Mother City’s middle classes are the happiest and most active inhabitants of SA’s six major cities, according to a new “obecity” index released on Tuesday by SA’s biggest medical scheme administrator Discovery Health.
Bottom of the pile is Bloemfontein, where people are the fattest and most miserable.
“We need to understand more about what people are doing in order to motivate them to change,” said the head of Discovery’s health incentive scheme Vitality, Craig Nossel.
Being overweight increases the risk of noncommunicable diseases, ranging from diabetes to cancer, said Dr Nossel, noting that 60% of SA’s women and 30% of SA’s men were overweight or obese.
The fact that SA has a growing proportion of people who are unhealthily overweight is not just a problem for the individuals concerned; it also places an increasing economic burden on the state, medical schemes and insurance companies.
Discovery found its medical scheme members who were overweight or obese had healthcare costs in 2012 that were 30% to 50% higher than those of people in the normal weight range, said Dr Nossel.
Source: Business Day