The Maastricht study, published in early 2022, does not mention the figure of 79 billion euros at all. The researchers, including Silvia Evers and Mickaël Hiligsmann from the FHML and Karen Freijer from the Dutch Obesity Partnership (Partnerschap Overgewicht Nederland, PON), did write that obesity and overweight cost society around 11,500 euros per person per year. However, they caution that due to the small research group and the relatively high number of women in it, “it’s not possible to generalise the results to the entire Dutch population.”
That is exactly what the PON, where – it should be noted – co-author Freijer has been manager since 2019, did in a press release at the time though. How that found its way onto the UM website is difficult to ascertain, says spokesperson Mark van der Linde when asked. Reports on research conducted by consortia or foundations involving Maastricht researchers are often simply reproduced, he says. Departments and institutes can also write posts themselves. In any case, “this article should not have been there. We removed it in response to questions from Zembla.”
Salient detail
A salient detail is that earlier this year, Evers and Hiligsmann signed a manifesto on combating overweight and obesity. In that document, which was presented to the State Secretary for Health in May, the controversial claim of 79 billion euros is again presented as fact. Did the two, who should have known better, sign the text without reading it? Both have been approached for a response. Hiligsmann is unavailable, and Observant has not yet received a response from Evers or the secretariat of her research institute CAPHRI.
UPDATE – On November 20, Evers and Hiligsmann sent an email stating that they had not been able to respond earlier. They write that they have seen the reports by Zembla and Observant, have “nothing to add substantively,” and will refrain from “responding further” to questions.
UM professor of Health Economics Wim Groot, who was not involved in the original study, also signed the manifesto. When asked, he said that he was not aware of the incorrect extrapolation at the time. “It is, of course, an error”, he agrees. “But it’s not very important for the argument in the manifesto. Whether it is 79 or 25 billion, overweight and obesity are a problem and we need to do more to treat and prevent it.”
UPDATE - On Wednesday morning, PON announced that it was distancing itself from the manifesto (co-signed by Freijer), partly because it cited the figure of €79 billion. “This figure came from economic research that should not have been extrapolated and included in the manifesto and our communications.” The statement does not explain how this erroneous extrapolation came about in the first place.