Obesity: The Next Public Health Challenge

In the past few decades, life expectancy has increased dramatically in developed countries, and many people now have better quality of life at a chronological age that 40 years ago would have seemed unimaginable. We have added both years to life and life to years. These changes are attributable to improved understanding of disease processes and their management. Pharmacotherapies and pharmacists have contributed to these improvements. However, this is only part of the story: much of the changed demographic profile comes from a better understanding of how we can prevent disease through public health approaches to improved lifestyles. In the United Kingdom, smoking prevalence, once 50%,1 is now 16%,2 and in many subsets of the population, it is even lower. Smoking prevalence in Canada is also at an all-time low, an estimated 13%.3 Smoking reductions have translated into reductions in coronary heart disease and cancers; indeed, smoking cessation has been labelled the most cost-effective health intervention there is. Pharmacists have contributed greatly to this cultural change.