The new ISS data also confirms the weight of social and territorial inequalities. After the law that recognizes obesity as a chronic disease, the priority is to guarantee early diagnosis, prevention and accessible treatment throughout Italy.
Obesity has been recognized by law as a chronic, progressive and relapsing disease. But between the right to treatment and the concrete possibility of accessing a diagnosis and appropriate treatment there remains a gap to be bridged. The new data from the PASSI surveillance of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità they photograph an emergency that not only concerns health, but also social and economic inequalities. And they raise a decisive question: how to transform the recognition of obesity into assistance that is truly accessible to all?
43% of Italians are overweight: the problem does not just concern the scales
Almost one in two adults in Italy has a weight higher than what is considered healthy. And behind this figure there is an issue that goes far beyond individual habits: obesity and overweight continue to be distributed unequally in the population, following fault lines linked to age, level of education, economic conditions and the area in which one lives.
The new data from the PASSI surveillance of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, relating to the two-year period 2024-2025, indicate that 43% of Italian adults are overweight. Approximately 32% are overweight, while over 10% have obesity. The picture remains substantially stable over time, without significant signs of improvement. A very worrying signal also emerges: less than half of those interviewed report having received advice on weight control from healthcare professionalsan element that casts a shadow on the role of family doctors and local assistance.
The photograph was presented by Valentina Minardi, researcher at the National Center for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion of the ISS, during the National Congress of the Italian Society of Obesity (SIO) WiP 2026, underway in Palermo. The numbers describe a widespread, but not uniform, phenomenon. Excess weight increases with age and is more frequent among men. It also affects to a greater extent people with a lower level of education and those who experience greater economic difficulties.
Geography matters too. The southern regions continue to record the highest percentages and in Campania over half of the adult population is overweight. A fact that draws attention to the relationship between health, social conditions and the possibility of accessing prevention.«The data confirm a substantially stable phenomenon over time, but show the persistence of important inequalities – explains Minardi -. Excess weight increases with age, is more frequent among men and affects more people with a lower level of education or with greater economic difficulties, as well as being more widespread in the southern regions. Another element to which it is important to draw attention concerns the role of healthcare professionals: less than half of the interviewees report having received advice on weight control, despite the fact that we know that the advice of a healthcare professional significantly increases the probability of adopting healthier behaviours”.
There is a law on obesity, now we need to guarantee the right to treatment
The recognition of obesity as a chronic, progressive and relapsing disease represents an important step in defining health policies. With the Law 149/2025Italy has introduced a legislative recognition that requires addressing the pathology as a condition that requires prevention, diagnosis and treatment, overcoming a reductive vision linked only to body weight.
But formal recognition does not automatically coincide with the availability of services. Between a law and its application there is a decisive phase: the one in which the principles must translate into healthcare organisation, care pathways and accessible therapeutic opportunities. This is the passage indicated by the Italian Obesity Society: from awareness of the disease to the effective right to treatment. A theme at the center of the inaugural session of the Palermo congress, with a discussion between the president of the SIO Silvio Buscemithe Honorable Roberto Pellapromoter of the law, Antonino Urso by AGENAS e Massimo Fabicouncilor for health of Emilia-Romagna and coordinator of the Health Commission of the Conference of the Regions. The vice president of the Chamber Giorgio Mulè sent a remote message to the congressmen.
«It is precisely from this photograph that we must start – he states Silvio Buscemi, President of the Italian Obesity Society and professor of Clinical Nutrition at the University of Palermo –. We have finally recognized obesity as a chronic, progressive and relapsing disease, but we still have to learn to intercept it and manage it as such. Social and territorial inequalities tell us that we cannot leave the responsibility of finding an answer to the individual citizen alone. Recognition of the disease must translate into prevention, early diagnosis and concretely accessible treatment paths.”
From diagnosis to treatment: the challenge is to make treatments accessible to all
The issue is even more relevant at a time when therapeutic possibilities for obesity are changing rapidly. Research has expanded the tools available to medicine, making it increasingly important to identify patients, evaluate their conditions and place them on appropriate pathways.
The SIO statement specifically refers to the need to move from epidemiology to the response of the Health Service. It is not enough to know the spread of the disease, nor to recognize it on a legislative level. We must ensure that people have concrete access to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment opportunities available.
«With Law 149 of 2025, Italy has made a choice that has also opened a path at an international level – explains the Hon. Roberto Pella –: finally recognizing obesity for what it is, a disease that requires prevention, diagnosis, treatment and adequate management. It is an achievement of which we can be proud, but a law represents a starting point, not a point of arrival. Now we must transform that recognition into concrete responses for people: homogeneous care paths across the territory, combating stigma and access to the therapeutic opportunities that research makes available today. The next step is to fully implement the law, working together with the scientific community, institutions and the National Health Service so that the right recognized on paper increasingly corresponds to a real right to treatment.”
The reference to territorial homogeneity is central. In fact, the data shows that the weight of the phenomenon changes significantly from one Region to another. For this reason, the implementation of the law will also have to measure itself with the ability to prevent the place of residence from becoming a determining factor in access to services.
The same need concerns the fight against stigma. Recognizing obesity as a disease also means changing the way it is addressed, in public communication and in clinical practice. The patient must be able to count on a health assessment and a treatment path, without being left alone when faced with a condition that may require continuous assistance. «The law has changed the picture – concludes Buscemi – and the therapeutic possibilities are changing rapidly. Now comes the most difficult part: ensuring that a person with obesity is recognized as a patient, intercepted by the healthcare system and accompanied on an appropriate path, regardless of where they live and their economic conditions. The right to treatment begins with the recognition of the disease, but becomes real only when that treatment is concretely accessible”.
