After the recognition of obesity as a chronic disease, the challenge is to transform the norm into concrete assistance. The Italian Obesity Society warns: treatments cannot depend on the postal code.
I am 6 million Italian adults with obesitywhile further one minor in four is overweight. But it’s not just the overall numbers that worry specialists. According to the latest data Istatif in the last ten years the share of Italians who are overweight or obese has remained substantially stable (from 45.9% in 2016 to 46.4% in 2025), theobesity among young peopleespecially among women. In the range between 18 and 34 years, the prevalence went from 3.6% to 6.3%, with an increase of 75%, while among children and adolescents the phenomenon continues to affect 26% of the population between 3 and 17 years of age, with peaks above 32% among the youngest. A picture that confirms how theobesity represents one of the main health emergencies in the country and which requires, according to experts, a leap in quality in the organization of care. It is no coincidence that the theme was at the center of the Roman conference “Obesity: the law exists. Now let’s build the system”organized after the approval of the historic law that recognized theobesity as a chronic, progressive and relapsing disease. If regulatory recognition represents a turning point, the challenge now is to make it operational, transforming a legal principle into truly accessible treatment paths throughout the national territory.
Stop patchy treatments
It is precisely on this point that he intervenes Silvio Buscemipresident of Italian Obesity Society (SIO)which denounces the risk of increasingly fragmented healthcare. In recent months some Regions, such as Lombardy, have started experiments to facilitate access to new ones anti-obesity drugswhile others are evaluating similar initiatives. For the SIO, however, this path risks creating second-class and second-class citizens. «It is necessary to unblock the health system onobesity with a national plan: we can no longer accept a healthcare patchwork that depends on the Region or ASL in which one resides. We have a duty to protect the whole of Italy, because health is a constitutional right and these territorial disparities risk creating unacceptable inequalities between citizens”, states Buscemi. The president of the SIO does not contest the regional initiatives themselves, but the principle according to which access to care can depend on the place of residence. «We cannot accept that the right to treatment depends on the Region or the health company where you live. We are pleased that a therapy can reach a person in need, but this is not the model we want”, he underlines. For the scientific society, the issue does not only concern the availability of drugs, but also the criteria with which to make them sustainable for the National Health Service. According to Buscemi there should be two priorities: clinical severity and the economic condition of the patient. People with BMI above 35especially in the presence of other related pathologies, represent the group that could benefit most from public access to new therapies. At the same time, the SIO maintains, it is necessary to guarantee treatments to those who cannot afford to bear the cost privately, preventing economic availability from becoming a new determinant of health.
From law to facts: the challenge is to build a fair system
The request for a national plan comes at a time when the Italian regulatory framework is rapidly changing. The approval of the law onobesity has paved the way for the inclusion of pathology in the main health planning tools and the new National Prevention Plan 2026-2031 provides interventions dedicated to the promotion of healthy lifestyles and the prevention of excess weight. However, according to specialists, the risk is that formal recognition of the disease is not sufficient without a uniform care network. The world of industry also underlines the need for a change of pace. “THE’obesity today represents one of the most serious global epidemics of our century: it affects over a billion people in the world and in Italy it affects approximately 6 million adults. The even more worrying figure concerns the youngest: over one in four minors is overweight”, he observes Jens Pii OlesenGeneral Manager and Vice President of Novo Nordisk Italy. «For over thirty years we have been investing in the research and development of innovative solutions, but also in the prevention and correct knowledge of the disease. The goal is to contribute to changing the way obesity is perceived, prevented and treated, collaborating with all actors in the healthcare system.” The message that emerges from the experts is clear: after being the first country in the world to recognize by law theobesity as a chronic diseaseItaly is now called to demonstrate that it knows how to translate that primacy into a concrete healthcare model. Because if prevention remains the first weapon against a constantly growing phenomenon, especially among the new generations, guaranteeing equal access to treatment means preventing the place where one is born or lives from ending up weighing as much, if not more, than the disease itself.
