Trends and Challenges relating to the rising incidence of obesity

Adjournment Speech SENATE
2 September 2003

Obesity rates in Australia are out of control, to such an extent that the problem is now being referred to as an epidemic. Despite the fact that the World Health Organisation started to sound the alarm in the early 1990’s, it is amazing that obesity, one of today’s most blatantly visible health issues, is at the same time still one of Australia’s most neglected.

In the year 2000, the United States had the dubious distinction of having the world’s highest proportion of overweight adults. Recent statistics indicate that the unfortunate mantle of the world’s fattest nation may have passed to Australia. First or second is irrelevant. The simple fact is that this is a podium finish, we would rather not have.

The increase in overweight and obesity incidence rates in Australia in the past 10 years is distressing. Results of the National Heart Foundations National Risk Factor Prevalence Study showed that in Australia 52% of adult males and 36% of adult females were either overweight or obese in 1998.

By 2000, the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle study showed that these rates had increased to 68% for males, and 53% for females. That represents a combined increase of over 30%.

And it is not a matter of national pride, of not wanting to be labelled the world’s fattest nation. It’s a matter of National health and wellbeing. Obesity is killing Australians.

Incontrovertible evidence shows that being overweight or obese is a serious risk to both physical and mental health. People who are excessively overweight have a significantly increased risk of suffering from heart disease, hypertension, stroke and diabetes, and certain types of cancer, including endometrial, ovarian, cervical and post-menopausal breast cancer in women, and prostrate cancer in men.

Obese individuals also show increased incidence of mental health problems, such as low self-esteem, negative body image self-concept, increased stress levels and poor socialisation ability.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has stated that there is a direct positive relationship between degree of obesity, duration of obesity, and the relative risk of premature death. Estimates indicate that excess weight accounts for around 4.5% of all deaths in Australia. Further, trends show that the risk of premature death almost doubles at body mass indexes between 25 and 32, and at severe obesity levels, as measured by a body mass index of 40 or greater, there is a 12 fold risk of mortality in 25-35 year olds compared to lean individuals.

Obesity is not just a problem for Australia’s adult population either. Available data shows that the prevalence of childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity rates in Australia have risen concurrently with those of adults.

Again, in what can only be described as an ‘ignorance is bliss’ attitude, few resources have been dedicated to making ongoing assessments of the actual obesity and overweight incidence rates of Australian children since the World Health Organisation identified “globesity” as a major issue 10 years ago, however the limited data shows that youth obesity rates rapidly accelerated toward the end of last century.

To give a clearer indication of the trend, comparative figures between the 1985 Australian Health and Fitness Survey and the 1995 National Nutrition Survey show that during this time the level of obesity in Australian children aged 7-15 years tripled from 1.7% to 5.1

Data analysis of three recent cross-sectional surveys by Dr Michael Booth from the Centre for the Advancement of Adolescent Health at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children indicates that approximately 25% of Australian children and adolescents are currently overweight or obese. A 20% increase since 1996.

As is the case for adults, being excessively overweight or obese as a child or adolescent is a risk to both physical and mental health. By far and away the most significant long-term health related consequence of childhood obesity is the high risk of persistence into adulthood.

Research suggests that obese children have a 25-50% chance of becoming obese adults, while obese adolescents have a 78% chance of suffering from adult obesity. Obviously the behaviours we learn as children, and the negative psycho-social scars inflicted carry over strongly into the adult years.

How has it all gotten so out of control?  What in the past 10 years has gone so wrong that we are now in the grips of a pandemic?  Two of the main factors are obviously the concurrent decrease in the level of physical activity amongst Australians at all levels, and the decrease in quality of diet.

There is little doubt that the modern world today has a more sedentary focus as technology takes over and people spend more time at work and less at play. Add to this the fact that sport and physical education have gradually been pushed off the education curriculum to the point where now in most states there is virtually no requirement for schools to include any physical activity opportunities for school goers, and you find little left to encourage people, young or old, to exercise.

Paradoxically, as the amount of time dedicated to exercise both at work and at play has decreased, the amount of food being consumed has increased. Data from comparative National Nutrition Surveys has shown that the average intake of 10-15 year olds increased by at least 10% between 1985 and 1995, meanwhile activity rates for these children decreased.

According to research group MINTEL, Australians buy on average 327 packets of snack food each per year, that’s almost a packet a day. This makes Australians the worlds’ fourth largest consumer of snack foods behind the US, Britain and Ireland.

Studies of Australia’s food advertising trends over the last ten years show that on average 72% of ads shown during children’s television viewing hours promote non-nutritious foods rather than healthy foods, with confectionary being the most commonly advertised food during children’s TV viewing times, followed by Fast Food Restaurants.

At the same time as our children are having their sport and recreation opportunities cut, they are being bombarded with advertising information that at best can only be described as socially irresponsible. The continuing apparent disinterest in the welfare of our children shows a total lack of concern for the care of the impressionable minds of Australia’s youth, and a gross disregard for the physical and mental health of our nation.

If the obvious costs to the health of the people of Australia cannot convince the current Government that steps must be taken to control this issue, then the monetary cost of an obese society must surely appeal to their preoccupation with bottom line economics.

The Department of Health and Ageing has recently provided estimates which indicate that the direct cost to the Australian health system of treating the major obesity-related illnesses in 1996 was between $680 and $1239 million.

That worked out at a per-capita rate of somewhere between $38 and $69 per person 8 years ago. With the rapid rise in obesity since 1995, one could only begin to imagine what the costs to the health system would be for the current financial year.

The federal liberal government, with its entirely irresponsible attitude toward addressing the Australian obesity issue, has placed the nation’s health and wellbeing in serious jeopardy.

The Federal Liberal Government was given the responsibility for caring for the general health and wellbeing of all Australians when they assumed power, yet all we have seen during the Liberal occupation is ignorance of an issue because it is too big to deal with.