Obesity in Australia
[4] The rise in obesity has been attributed to poor eating habits in the country closely related to the availability of fast food since the 1970s,[5][6] sedentary lifestyles and a decrease in the labour workforce.
[10] Such representations would be skewed downward as people tend to overestimate their height and under-report their weight, the two key criteria to determine a BMI reading.
[22] A 2001 study showing that 31% of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders were obese, nearly double the national average at that time.
A cross sectional study (Valery, Moloney, Cotterill, Harris, Sinha & Green, 2009) found that 46% of the total population, of participants, were overweight or obese.
With this high population of overweight and obese Indigenous youth, it puts major implications on the public health system.
[23] A University of Alberta study, conducted in 2006, noted that 60% of Aboriginal Australians over the age of 35 in Western Australia tested positive for diabetes.
[25] Individuals who migrate to Australia moving from a low income nation, have a greater tendency to undergo an increase in weight.
[26] A study done by Delavari et al. (2012) suggested that many immigrant groups showed signs of obesogenic lifestyle behaviours after migrating from low-HDI to high-HDI.
[31] A Western Australian study (Bell et al. 2011) showed that overweight and obese primary school children have greater medical complications due to their weight status.
[33] Such prevalence rates remain unacceptably high and confirm the need of prevention interventions targeting obesity in this setting.
Jones et al. (2010) study found that early school years may be the time when child, parent and community characteristics begin to differ between overweight and non-overweight children, and may be an ideal time to target broader parental and community contexts influencing overweight and obese children.
[4] In addition, the number of type 2 diabetes patients who were diagnosed solely on their weight was calculated at 242,000 in 2007, a 137% increase in cases in the previous three years.
[39] In April 2008, the Australian Federal Government added obesity to its list of "national health priorities", officially elevating it to the same standard of attention given to other deadly ailments such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
[2] On 1 June 2009, the first Parliamentary comment on obesity in Australia was published, with the Standing Committee on Health and Ageing recommending 20 acts for the Federal Government to consider, including tax incentives to make healthier fruits and vegetables more affordable for Australians, and pressing the government to work with the food industry to lower fat and sugar levels in existing processed food.
[41] The former ALP government under Prime Minister Julia Gillard wanted to tackle the obesity problem in Australia by giving tax subsidies which would fund gym memberships to people who wish to lose weight.
[42] Her watchdog group, the National Preventative Health Taskforce, also wants to target childhood obesity by banning ads for junk food during the daytime when most children's television programs air.
