Most back government policies to fight fat

NEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) Policies aimed at fighting obesity in the US would find a high level of public acceptance, a new survey shows.

''People at all weight levels -- normal, overweight, or obese -- expressed support for new policies,'' Dr Bernard Fuemmeler of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, said in a press release accompanying the study.

Among 1,139 people who Fuemmeler and his team polled by phone in 2004, 85 per cent said they would support tax breaks for employers who offer exercise space to employees, while 73 per cent said they backed policies that would support employers or health care companies that offered discounts to people to help them lose excess weight or remain at a healthy weight.

Seventy-three per cent favored requiring health insurance companies to reimburse members for obesity treatment and prevention programs.

The researchers also asked survey respondents about their perceptions of the causes of the current obesity epidemic. More than three-quarters blamed a lack of will power, while 73 per cent thought the cost of healthy food was a factor. Men were twice as likely as women to cite these factors as causes of obesity, while people with lower incomes were actually less likely to blame the cost of healthy food.

About half of those surveyed thought society helps cause obesity, while about one third said they believed ''bad genes'' or lack of knowledge were responsible.

Fuemmeler and his colleagues conclude that their finding of a ''high level of support'' for regulating health care companies and offering tax breaks to companies in order to help fight obesity are important for policymakers, and may offer a ''first step'' toward implementing such policies.

REUTERS MQA HS0926