Report On The Impact Of Child Obesity Among Children Of New South Wales, Australia
Introduction
The rising prevalence of child obesity in Australia is a major public health concern. This report will review the impact of child obesity among children of New South Wales, Australia. It will provide information on the effects of childhood obesity in the region at individual level, community level and the general population. The report aims to identify the key points where changes can be made and provides recommendations by demonstrating knowledge of the planning cycle and community building strategies to address the identified issues.
The trends of weight related behaviour of the children and adolescents in NSW can be seen towards an increasing pattern linked to obesity, where the dietary patterns, inclusive of total energy intake, fat intake, sugar intake, sweetened drink intake, fast food consumption and confectionery consumption is high, and the physical activities, inclusive of TV watching, computer games is high, and active travelling to work or school is quiet low (Visser et al., 2018). In 2008, it was assessed that the childhood obesity in girls and boys of NSW increased from 11-12% in 1985 to 21% to 25% in both girls and boys (Nahar, et al., 2017). However, since 2007, the overweight and obesity in children of age group 5 to 16 years is 21.4% (Innes-Hughes et al., 2019).
Consequences of Childhood Obesity
Gupta et al (2012) links childhood obesity to medical and psychosocial consequences, such as, high cholesterol, eating disorders, skin infections, adulthood obesity, hypertension, Asthma and anxiety, stress, low self-esteem, poor learning, discrimination, bullying, etc. Childhood obesity can cause hypertension, increased blood clotting tendency, chronic inflammation and it can most likely lead to overweight in adulthood and cause health risks such as, cardiovascular issues, cancer, and diabetes (Xu & Xue, 2016).
It is important to understand that childhood obesity has significant effects on individuals, community and population as a whole. Children suffering from obesity are socially marginalised, distressing their self-esteem, affecting their school attendance and educational performance. It targets them as discriminated in workplaces, social gatherings and educational institutions (NSW Council of Social Sciences, 2016). As a consequence, these adverse experiences can lead to long term mental health problems and brain development problems which can affect their learning capabilities, behaviour, emotional reactivity and health (Moore et al., 2015).
At the community level, childhood obesity can become harmful if it increases to a significant level of non-transmissible diseases (Miller et al., 2017). The health and social consequences for individuals, communities and the whole population are still to be investigated further as there is no definite research stating the effects (Caird et al., 2011), however, the several health and mental issues that it brings can deteriorate the overall well-being, image and productivity of the whole society. Furthermore, it can have cultural and economic consequences and can cost billions to the government for taking corrective and preventive measures (Caird et al., 2011) in addition to placing huge burden on the health system of the state (Sweeney et al., 2018). Economic costs that the Australian economy faces includes higher health care costs, health care services, productivity losses, carer costs, welfare payments, inevitable tax revenue, aids, equipment and accommodation, etc. (AIHW, 2017).
Preventive and Corrective Measures of Child Obesity and Lessons Learned
However, due to severity of the consequences of childhood obesity, prevention and treatment is necessary to stop further harm. Australia has had come forth with several child obesity prevention policies, starting from 1997 when National Health and Medical Research Council promoted physical activities and healthy diet targeting children and adolescents (Turner and Crowle, 2010). New South Wales follows several health service plans to cater to child obesity.
These policies and plans in NSW work towards improving both the overall health of the children and youth and also specific childhood obesity issues. The state of NSW was financially supported by the funds provided by the partnership of national Council of Australian Governments and National Partnership Agreement on Preventive Health (NPAPH), which allowed the respective jurisdictions to develop policies and plans according to the local needs. In 2002, NSW had a summit on inter-sectoral childhood obesity and led to reduction in mean BMI (Body Mass Index) among children of age group 5 – 15 years. In 2015, a parliamentary inquiry was set and showed continuing government concern about childhood obesity. As suggested by WHO, NSW has taken a long term strategic approach (Innes-Hughes et al., 2019).
The report put forward by Hardy et al (2017) shows that the Australian government and the NSW follows a comprehensive approach to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity. In attempt to formulate preventive and corrective measures, NSW has conducted only few regional or state surveys to define the level of overweight and obesity in children that too vary in terms of indices and cannot be compared. BMI has been recently used as a tool to measure obesity and overweight in children. The 2015 evaluations show that since 2010, “…and in contrast to primary school children, there were significant increases in the prevalence of overweight among adolescents, increasing from 17 to 22%. While the 2015 prevalence of overweight was similar for adolescent boys and girls (~22%), the prevalence among girls increased by 8% after being stable at approximately 16% for the previous 18 years” (Hardy et al (2017). Prevention of Obesity in Children and Young People: NSW Government Action Plan 2006 was introduced in response to the 2002 summit on child obesity. This plan focused on the recommendations given by the summit 2002 on social, economic, environmental and behavioral elements that contributed to child obesity (NSW Department of Health, 2009). Figure 2 shows the priority areas in which NSW Acton Plan worked on.
The Action Plan 2006 worked on specific programs rather than including the overall strategic approach. Although, the Plan was formulated by the collaboration of the government and other institutes, there was still a need to include relevant agencies such as, transport planning, urban planning, etc. Other than that there was no accurate way to measure its effectiveness (NSW Department of Health, 2009).
In order to improve the development and formulation of policies and strategies to deal with childhood obesity, it is important to select few important variables that indicate level of exercise, and food intake (Visser et al., 2018). Moreover, the environment in which children spend their life comprises of schools, homes and entertainment places. This means that the corrective and preventive policies should be made with collaborative efforts of all these elements which play a vital role in children’s life. Overweight and obesity affects the whole community throughout the life stages, therefore, policies are needed to improve the epidemic at each stage of life (AIHW, 2017). Chiang et al (2015) has provided a Whole-school, Whole-community, Whole-child Model which creates alignment and collaboration between the education and health, to support the full potential of each child. Gittelsohn et al., (2019) also states that multi-level multi-component intervention to prevent and reduce child obesity should be made in three stages: pre-intervention, during intervention and post intervention, followed by proper monitoring and feedback. This allows the groups to support each other and makes loops to promote positive and reduce negative behaviours.
The epidemic of childhood obesity and overweight requires attention from all institutes which play a vital role in a child’s life. Government should be supportive in terms of corrective and preventive policies and strategies and in providing funds to implement and monitor them. New approaches should be formulated by the collaborative system of schools, homes and government in order to treat child obesity inclusive of dietary, physical and behavioural elements (Xu and Xue, 2016). It is important to learn lessons from the failures of the previous policies and base new policies and strategies on research and evidence of their effectiveness (NSW Department of Health, 2009). For instance, the lessons learned from the Action Plan 2006 could be that there should be a long term strategic response to the child obesity epidemic and should be open to new interventions. Effectiveness of new plans should be measured through setting variables or elements that are relevant to the problem. There should be a comprehensive action plan that would involve community, government and private agencies such as, schools, instead of a limited number of agencies. However, the Action Plan was a starting point for NSW state to cater to child obesity and overweight, which is now recommended to be improved and/or altered for future reduction of the prevalence of child obesity (NSW Department of Health, 2009).
Conclusion
This report has discussed impacts of child obesity and overweight on individual level, community and society as a whole. It has looked in to the approaches that have been adopted to cater to child obesity and has put forward recommendations to improve any weaknesses that exist in the policies and actions to prevent and reduce child obesity. However, further research is required that would involve appropriate surveys and pre-planning to formulate accurate and timely measures for reducing or stabilising child obesity and overweight. Moreover, each model and framework that has previously been devised, should be studies and taken as a guide for new comprehensive strategies which will handle the child obesity issue on its appropriate level.
References
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