NEARLY twice as many women than men from York have been admitted to hospital with problems related to obesity, figures have revealed.
Over the last year there were 3,155 incidents where people from the Vale of York were taken into hospital where obesity was the main or secondary reason - of these 2,035 were female patients and 1,120 were male.
This represents 896 admissions per 100,000 of the population in the York area.
There were 440,288 admissions to England's hospitals in 2014/15 where obesity was the main reason for a person being admitted or was a secondary factor. The figure is the highest on record and is more than ten times higher than the 40,741 recorded in 2004/5.
The report, from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), also showed that the proportion of adults now regarded as morbidly obese is growing.
Those who have a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or more has more than tripled since 1993, affecting two per cent of men and four per cent of women in 2014.
Izzi Seccombe, community well-being spokeswoman for the Local Government Association, which represents councils that have a responsibility for public health, said: "These are extremely worrying figures that illustrate the scale of the challenge we face in the fight against obesity.
"But the problem will only get worse unless we take urgent action, with the number of obese adults in the country forecast to soar by a staggering 73 per cent to 26 million people over the next 20 years.
"The fact that the number of admissions for children has more than doubled since 2004/5 underlines why it is vital that the Government uses its forthcoming childhood obesity strategy to address what is now one of the major health dangers of the 21st century.
"Obesity leads to serious health conditions later on in life, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, and is costing the NHS around £5 billion a year.
"Councils have long been calling for action to tackle obesity, such as clearer labelling of sugar content, calorie counts on menus, and sugar reduction in soft drinks. We cannot delay tackling this issue any longer."
In the East Riding of Yorkshire there were 1,557 incidents when obesity was a factor in a person being admitted to hospital, in Harrogate there were 1,245, in Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby there were 446 and in Scarborough there were 695.
In each instance more women were admitted than men.
Nationally, the majority of hospital admissions with a primary diagnosis of obesity were for female patients with 6,630 incidents, equating to 73 per cent, compared to 2,500 for men.
Women underwent 76 per cent of bariatric surgery procedures performed by the NHS during 2014-15, according to the latest figures released by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).
During 2014-15, 6,030 bariatric surgery procedures were recorded in total with 4,590 procedures carried out on women, compared to 1,440 for men.
