Childhood Obesity Prevention Programmes in Auckland - September 2004
Results from the National Children’s Nutrition Survey showed that 21.3% of NZ school children aged between 5 and <15 years of age were overweight and 9.8% were obese. Overweight and obesity levels were highest for Pacific males (33.9%; 26.1%) and females (32.9%; 31%), followed by Maori males (19.6%; 15.7%) and females (30.6%; 16.7%), with the lowest levels in NZ European males (18.4%; 4.7%) and females (18.8%; 6%).
Results were based on the International Obesity Task Force reference
and may have limited suitability for the NZ population
given that NZ Maori and Pacific children have a
lower percentage of body fat than Europeans for any given BMI.
Few other NZ studies of childhood BMI have been done, with only one study examining longitudinal trends in BMI. This study of Hawkes Bay children aged 11-12 years showed a doubling in percentage of overweight children and a quadrupling of obese children between 1989 and 2000.
International statistics also show trends of rapid increases in prevalence of overweight and obesity with time, with the prevalence of obesity increasing more quickly than the prevalence of overweight.
Obesity carries a significant associated burden of morbidity, mortality, and financial cost. It is the main modifiable driver of the Type 2 diabetes epidemic which is predicted to increase 2.3-fold between 1996 and 2011.
Paediatric obesity is also associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular risk factors, psychological morbidity, asthma, Type 1 diabetes, and early mortality. The direct cost alone of obesity was calculated at $247.1 million in 200/01. This equated to 2.5% of total health expenditure, in line with the global WHO estimate that obesity consumes 2-7% of developed countries’ annual health budgets.
- Childhood Obesity report (945kb)
