Over 60% of Australian adults are now overweight or obese, according to a report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
The report, Key indicators of progress for chronic disease and associated determinants: data report, featured good news and bad news about the state of Australian health and chronic disease, which includes diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other long term problems.
The number of people dying prematurely from chronic disease has fallen by 17% between 1997 and 2007, which has driven up life expectancy rates to 79.2 years for men and 83.7 years for women (2006-08 figures).
The number of Australian adults smoking daily has also dropped to less than 18%, down from 24% in 1991.
However, 23.1% of children and 61.2% of adults are now overweight or obese, which is linked to diabetes and heart disease.
“Excess weight is associated with many chronic conditions, so the increase shown in these statistics is of concern,” said Ilona Brockway of the AIHW’s Population Health Unit.
“Adopting healthier behaviours is the key to preventing chronic disease. These indicators will help keep an eye on what’s working in chronic disease prevention.”
Professor Boyd Swinburn from Deakin University’s School of Health and Social Development, who was not involved in the study, said deaths from chronic diseases had been falling over recent decades as public health messages about smoking, cholesterol and heart disease started to get through to the public.
“The things that worked to reduce heart disease, we now need to apply those same principles to reduce obesity,” he said, advocating a mix of legislative measures and public health messages.
“There are things that have been proposed to the government, including limiting marketing of junk food, looking at taxation and subsidies to change the financial drivers for obesity and looking at things like promotion of healthy food policies,” he said.
“On the energy expenditure side, it’s about improving public transport options, cycling infrastructure, making sure the built environment is conducive to exercise and making cities more liveable.”
However, public health advocates face a tough fight from food industry lobbyists opposed to measures such as a ban on junk food advertising during children’s television programs, he said.
“There is very strong public support for regulation but the government is not willing to move on it because of the lobbying pressure from the food industry.”
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Comments (4)
Douglas Cotton
(B.Sc.(Physics), B.A.(Econ), Dip.Bus.Admin)
It would be interesting to see a survey comparing Body Mass Index of people visiting fast food outlets with a random sample.
Cath Lawrence
Data Analyst. (I do not speak for my employer) (logged in via email @aihw.gov.au)
I find it rather problematic that "overweight" and "obese" BMIs are lumped together, when there doesn't seem to be any evidence that "overweight" is actually a problem. It may in fact be associated with lower mortality than "normal". See http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/293/15/1861.full
Kip Hansen
Retired IT Professional, Humanitarian Missionary (logged in via email @i4.net)
Can anyone else do the math? Over the exact same time period the following: Aussie BMIs (weight) UP -- Death rate from Chronic Illness DOWN. Life Expectancy also UP. If it is true that 'Excess weight is associated with many chronic conditions', then why isn't it showing up in the above statistics. This looks like GOOD NEWS to me. At least there is enough food to go around! (and around once more, apparently.) Personally, I think its the beer consumption driving those extra kilos, eh mate?
Nick Evans
(Doctoral student in Philosophy & Biosecurity at Australian National University)
Kip, I'm not sure that your statistics necessarily imply what you claim.
Boyd's claim about decrease in deaths from chronic illness might be squared with an increase in BMI in one or a combination of three ways. First, deaths due to chronic illness could be falling through other factors than obesity related factor. This is what Boyd claims in the piece. If this is the case, one would expect to see deaths continue to drop in proportion to the effects of those factors being mitigated, but the…
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