Childhood obesity has stabilized says research

South Australia, January 9
A study has helped debunk the myth that childhood obesity is on the rise. A new research by the University of South Australia claims that the ‘epidemic’ in Australia has been exaggerated.

Professor Timothy Olds from the South Australia University School of Health Sciences, found that the alarming rate of obese and over weight children through the 1980’s and 1990’s had stalled. Professor Olds analyzed and compared data of 28 Australian studies of childhood weight status between the years 1985-2007 and discovered a ‘clear plateau.’ According to him although one in five children are still in the grip of weight issues, the situation was much improved than a decade ago. The study revealed that growth in childhood obesity overall had slowed to a crawl.

He commented that "If you had a look at the data until certainly the early 2000s and you put them all together, it really did look as if things were increasing exponentially - there was a runaway increase in overweight and obesity. So it's not that these people misinterpreted the data, it's just that recent data has shown a change in the pattern.”

The improvement in the changed scenario he attributes to growing awareness in parents, exposure through schools and a definite tilt towards healthy eating.

Professor Olds declared that "There is a ceiling effect. That's one possible explanation, but there is a more optimistic one - that there's much more consciousness about childhood obesity and so many initiatives in schools and communities. All these things, cumulatively, have just started to reverse the tide."

The research has challenged the perception that childhood obesity is increasing, defying the warnings that it is an epidemic out of control. Professor Olds stated that "When we put all those studies together, and they encompass about 70-80,000 children, what we noticed was there was a very clear flattening out of the prevalence the rate of overweight and obesity in children, it started in the late 90s and it's continued until today. The best way to charcterise it is, the patient is critically ill but isn't getting any worse."

However the study sharpens focus on the fact that the problem cannot be trivialized. He emphasized that the survey did not mean that childhood obesity was not cause for concern, and should not detract from efforts to combat the battle of the bulge.

He commented that, “I think it's a very serious situation. Five to 6 per cent of children are classified as obese and a further 15 to 20 per cent are characterized as overweight. That's a very large slice of Australia's children that weigh more than they should."

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) felt that the figures on over weight children still remained quite high. The rates were still increasing though not at a significant rate.

AMA President Dr Rosanna Capolingua said "We can't be content with these statistics - we're talking about children who are at risk of serious health problems later in life."