Staff who are too heavy but classed as ‘metabolically healthy’ are 37 per cent more likely to need time off, researchers found. That increases to 71 per cent if they are ‘metabolically unhealthy’ – meeting three criteria from a list including a large waist and high blood pressure. Málaga university’s Dr Miguel-Angel Sánchez-Chaparro said it is more evidence of the ‘pervasive consequences of obesity’.

Spanish researchers looked at the health and the number of days signed off sick of 174 000 employees taking part in The ICARIA Study. This was designed to analyse cardiovascular risk factors and their impact on sickness absence in the Spanish working population.

Dr Miguel-Angel Sánchez-Chaparro of the University of Málaga said: ‘Overall, the working population is supposed to be young and healthy but we have found a high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, like tobacco consumption, hypertension, or dyslipidaemia. ‘About six per cent of Spanish workers are at high cardiovascular risk, i.e. their likelihood of suffering a fatal cardiovascular event during the next ten years is five per cent or greater, and they take excess sick leave.”