BUDAPEST — Europe could face a major health and social crisis as obesity levels continue to rise among adults and children, health experts said Sunday.

Doctors at the 15th European Congress on Obesity said health officials across the Continent needed to use a new approach and end discrimination in dealing with obese people.

"Obesity should be treated within the health care system as any other complex disease," said Vojtech Hainer, president of the European Association for the Study of Obesity. "In many European countries, more than half the population is overweight or obese."

Hainer said excess body weight was one of the most important risk factors contributing to health problems, reducing average life expectancy by two years.