The U.K.'s Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is calling on obesity to be officially recognized as a chronic disease in order to address it more effectively. It issued a call for the government and the broader health sector to recognize obesity as a disease and not a lifestyle choice. Recent guidance from Public Health England found that 63% of adults were considered overweight or obese in 2015, while almost 20% of children aged 10 to 11 were found to obese, while an additional 14.3% were overweight. RCP wants obesity recognized as an ongoing chronic disease to allow the creation of formal healthcare policies to improve care, which would allow for preventative measures to be implemented to help reduce its prevalence. The request follows the launch of Public Health England's Change4Life campaign to support families to cut back on sugar and to tackle growing rates of childhood obesity.
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