Surgery mooted for obese teenagers
Email Print Normal font Large font Carol Nader
August 30, 2006
Advertisement
AdvertisementSURGERY for grossly overweight teenagers is a cost-effective way to tackle the growing childhood obesity problem, a report commissioned by the State Government says.
The report also found that programs based in schools were cost-effective, but raised questions about the effectiveness of some.
State health ministers in favour of restricting junk food advertising to children may also seize on the report to back their argument.
It found that reducing television advertising of junk food and soft drinks for children aged up to 14 years was "extremely cost-effective".
While the report says restrictions on advertising are also "likely to be effective", Health Minister Bronwyn Pike has treated that finding with caution.
She says the finding is based on research done in 1982, and found improvements in weight reduction and fitness among children who were isolated from television - and therefore advertising - on a holiday camp.
The report also acknowledges that such restrictions were "currently politically unacceptable" in the face of the Federal Government's strong opposition.
Prime Minister John Howard was recently accused of gagging state health ministers from discussing advertising regulations. But health ministers have agreed to set up a committee to assess whether current regulations on advertising are working.
Gastric banding, a surgical procedure that gives a sensation of fullness, is not suitable for people who are only moderately overweight. It is largely considered a last resort.
Some have to wait years to have the surgery in a public hospital.
The committee is likely to draw on the research, which is believed to be the first to assess the cost-effectiveness of ways to reduce childhood obesity.
Australia is now believed to have the fastest-growing childhood obesity rate in the world.
The Government last week unveiled the results of a program in Colac, in which 1800 children lost on average a kilogram and dropped three centimetres from their waistlines. The program included persuading local takeaway shops to cook with lower-fat oils, and luring children away from television.
Other measures considered cost-effective included family-based counselling with a pediatrician, dietitian and psychologist.
A school-based program to reduce consumption of fizzy drinks was found to be cost-effective, but the evidence that it worked, according to the report, was "limited".
Chief health officer Robert Hall, also chairman of the group that compiled the report, said it proved there was no magic bullet to cure obesity. "It's not like there's just a vaccine that we can role out for people," he said. "What we will have to do is a whole range of different programs that act together."
Dr Hall said some of the report's conclusions were "a bit tentative" because the evidence base from which they were built was not very strong.
He said that just as rates of tobacco use took many years to improve, so would obesity.
"We will need to adopt a wide range of different strategies that will change over time, and it will take a long time," he said.
Obesity Surgery for teens
Linear Mode
