Stopping the obesity epidemic requires a national programme

Finland once brought its coronary heart disease epidemic under control. The North Karelia Project, stronger primary healthcare and citizens’ willingness to change all played a role. Now, as obesity continues to spread, the country needs to apply the same kind of long-term thinking again.

The Lancet considers obesity one of the world’s major health problems. Interest in medical treatment has grown in Finland as effective and relatively safe medicines have become available. Yet Finns remain among Europe’s most obese populations, and the trend is still moving in the wrong direction.

The earlier response to cardiovascular disease offers a possible model. In the 1970s, Finland developed the prevention and treatment of high blood pressure and diabetes through teamwork. Nurses took shared responsibility for delivering care, while the food industry eventually joined the effort. The Heart Symbol was introduced in the early 2000s, and the multi-year Dehko programme helped turn the incidence of type 2 diabetes downward in the 2010s.

A 2012-2018 programme led by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare also aimed to prevent obesity, although obesity did not appear in its title. Since then, national action has quietened, even as obesity has increased. Obesity and related illnesses now represent one of the country’s largest health threats, with untreated obesity estimated to cost about 3 billion euros a year. Children and young people are also gaining weight, while prevalence varies sharply between regions and population groups.

The article proposes that Finland’s next government programme should make a long-term, lifelong national obesity prevention and treatment programme a central health-policy goal. The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare would coordinate it, with wellbeing services counties and occupational healthcare responsible for implementation. Primary care would carry much of the practical work, supported by health, exercise and nutrition organisations. The proposal also suggests a two-year trial of reimbursement for obesity medicines and a reassessment of health-based food taxation. Individual choices would remain important, but the article argues that healthcare policy should become more active rather than retreat as the population gains weight.