The obesity crisis continues - Harry and Luke on the job
By Rural Press Interactive/Dubbo Liberal
Today the Federal Government is launching a campaign to get Australians healthy. Federal Health minister Tony Abbott, together with role models including socceroo pin-up boy Harry Kewell and celebrity chef Luke Mangan are attempting to battle the increasing obesity crisis facing the country.
It is estimated about 25 per cent of Australian children are obese. The Commonwealth Government yesterday awarded $3.4 million in National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funding for three new projects focusing on preventing obesity in Australians. These grants are among eight grants, totalling $9.7 million, for research into the social and economic factors impacts on health. The grants were given to Deakin University, the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Monash University to look at everything from food labeling and urban planning to home intervention in disadvantaged populations:
• Deakin University will receive $1.9 million to investigate the causes of increased obesity risk among socio-economically disadvantaged women and children. The study will also look at women and children who appear resilient to obesity, with a view to applying lessons learned to other women and children.
• The Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Sydney South West Area Health Service will receive $650,000 to trial a home visit early intervention regime in a disadvantaged population. The program particularly targets the early onset of childhood obesity.
• Monash University will receive $760,000 to look at a regulatory approach to obesity prevention. Laws related to the provision, marketing and labelling of food, urban planning, transport, taxes and subsidies will all be analysed, and practical reforms suggested.
These new grants are in addition to more than $529 million in NHMRC grants for 2007 announced earlier this week. Those grants included $14.7 million for obesity-related research.
The research council estimates around 40 per cent of Australian children do not participate in organised sport outside school hours. An estimated 1.5 million young people under the age of 18 are overweight or obese and therefore may be at risk of preventable chronic conditions such as Type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke.
Only 30 per cent of Australians eat four or more serves of vegetables per day and only around half meet the daily recommendation of two serves of fruit. The government has committed funds via the Building a Healthy Active Australia initiative to look at the growing problem of "declining physical activity and poor eating habits" through after school activity programs and other measures. Go to
www.healthyactive.gov.au
The funding comes in the wake of a report by Access Economics which details the skyrocketing cost of the obesity epidemic gripping Australia. The report says taxpayers spent $21 billion last year - double the cost of Medicare.
The study was released at an all-day forum at Parliament House in Canberra last week and put the direct and indirect costs of obesity - including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer - at $21 billion.
It found the biggest losses included the burden of disease at $17.2 billion. The next biggest loss as a cause of obesity was in workplace productivity, accounting for $1.7 billion a year from short and long-term employment impacts and premature death.
Obesity was also found to drain $873 million in health spending and a further $804 million in carer costs straight from the taxpayers pocket.
However despite proactive campaigns to seriously reverse the effects of the obesity epidemic the end is not in sight, according to the Diabetes Australia commissioned report.
Every year in Australia the number of adults upgrading from a normal weight bracket to overweight increases by 1.1 per cent which is comparable to most developing nations.
If current trends persist Access Economics predicts the number of Australians suffering from obesity could more than double to 7.2 million - 28.9 per cent of the population - within the next 20 years.
The forecast is particularly frightening for residents of the Greater Western Area Health Service (GWAHS) who have a higher rate of overweight and obesity in seven out of eight age categories then the State average.
According to the NSW Population Health Survey (2005), 55.9 per cent of residents within the GWAHS district are classified as overweight or obese compared to 49.9 per cent across the State.
Source: Rural Press Interactive and Jeremy Scott - The Dubbo Daily Liberal
Obesity programs in Australia 
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