Department of Health written question – answered at on 13 January 2015.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to address the incidence of cancer in (a) women and (b) men who are overweight.
Since early 2011 the Department of Health (Public Health England from 1 April 2013) has been running Be Clear on Cancer campaigns. These are designed to:
- raise the public’s awareness of specific cancer symptoms;
- encourage people with those symptoms to go to the doctor; and
- diagnose cancer at an earlier stage, and therefore make it more treatable, and thereby improve cancer survival rates
While these campaigns are not specifically targeted at people who are overweight, the campaign literature does include prevention messages such as giving up smoking, keeping active and eating more healthily.
In addition, Public Health England is developing a new programme of activity aimed at helping mid-life adults to make changes to improve their health including eating well, moving more and drinking less.
As part of work to tackle obesity, NHS England is taking action to become the first country to implement at scale a national evidence-based diabetes prevention programme, based on proven United Kingdom and international models, as outlined in the Five Year Forward View. There will be wider benefits associated with reduction of chronic disease risk more generally.
Yes1 person thinks so
No0 people think not
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