Manuel Franco
Head of International Relations at the Spanish Society of Public Health and Healthcare Administration (SESPAS), organiser of the 2026 European Public Health Conference (EUPHA), Ikerbasque Research Professor at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) and professor and researcher at the universities of Alcalá and Johns Hopkins
The two studies show very concerning results both in the child and adult populations due to extremely high prevalences of overweight and obesity.
Once again, there are geographical (between regions) and social (between social classes) inequalities, which we refer to in public health as 'the social gradient of disease.'
This is an analysis of data from an ENE-COVID study that was not designed to study adult and child obesity, but it does corroborate previous data and knowledge.
In terms of childhood overweight and obesity, Spain, along with Greece and Italy, presents the most concerning data in all of Europe, with overweight and obesity prevalences close to 40%, while in countries like Denmark or the Czech Republic, prevalences are exactly half that.
Therefore, from a public health perspective, in terms of health protection and prevention of diseases associated with overweight/obesity, this is an enormous and concerning challenge in Spain, and it is an uneven challenge. A challenge that, from the perspective of childhood, in Spain involves developing and implementing the national plan to reduce childhood obesity effectively.
Obesity is a complex problem, globally present, that we must take very seriously in Spain and in Europe, where there are already successful experiences.