Empowering Healthy Kids Blog

One of the dangers with highlighting health epidemics, such as childhood obesity, is the lack of objective balance. So when new research turns up that seems to contradict the prevailing wisdom, we must sit up and take notice. Reported today in The Age:

THE obesity epidemic among Australian children has been grossly overstated, according to a study that reveals the problem is concentrated among poorer families and some ethnic groups.

The study shows children from low-income families are twice as likely to be obese as children from high-income families, and their risks are increased if they are from Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, Aboriginal or southern European backgrounds. The study of health, fitness and fatness — based on a national sample of 8500 children aged six to 18 — is the first of its kind to measure social class and ethnicity.

Jenny O’Dea, associate professor of nutrition and health education at the University of Sydney, will present the findings today at the Community and Change conference, hosted by the university’s faculty of education and social work.

Dr O’Dea said the child obesity rate was “not rocketing out of control” and appeared to be levelling off.

“There’s a suggestion the whole of Australia is at risk of obesity and that’s been blown out of the water by this research,” she said.

The big increase in childhood obesity had occurred between 1985 and 1995 when the rate grew from 1.5 per cent to 5 per cent.

By 2006, the proportion of obese children had grown slightly to 6.3 per cent.

If these results are verified, this is welcome news. Further research needs to encouraged and we need to encourage these good news stories.

This entry (Permalink) was posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 at 2:13 pm and is filed under australia, research, childhood obesity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.