Obesity is on the rise. The average weight of Australian adults has been increasing by around 0.5kg-1kg for each of the past 20 years, culminating in an astounding 61% of Australian adults - and a quarter of Australian children - being overweight or obese in 2007-08 [1, 2]. Moreover, 3.71 million Aussies (17.5%) have been categorised as obese. On a pure baseline projection (in other words, the best case scenario) this means that by 2025, 4.6 million Australians - or 18.3% of the population - will be obese. But, on current trends, the figure is likely to be closer to 7 million [3].
Of the young adults (those aged 18-24 years old), 39.9% of males and 34.9% of females have been estimated to be overweight or obese [1]. This is an increase upon previous generations [1], but to gain a true understanding of the implications, you need to think of the bigger picture. Lifelong health behaviours tend to be established in early adulthood [4], and there is evidence to suggest that unhealthy habits are often picked up in the years directly following high school [5]. So you can premise that Australian adults are developing poor health habits in their younger years; habits which then last into their mature years, and then begin to cause weight gain as their metabolism slows. This notion can be supported by the fact that with each subsequent age category, the incidence of overweight and obesity almost always climbs higher [1]. In other words, as Australians get older, they get fatter.
So, why should we care? As long as you don’t mind carrying a bit of extra padding around, what’s the problem? Unfortunately, as the statistics prove, the consequences of overweight and obesity are more serious than that...
- · High body mass is responsible for 7.5% of Australia’s total burden of disease and injury, ranked slightly behind only tobacco (7.8%) and high blood pressure (7.6%). But with smoking rates declining, high body mass is likely to soon overtake tobacco as the leading modifiable cause of disease and injury burden [1].
- · According to recent estimates, almost a quarter of all type 2 diabetes and osteoarthritis cases are caused by obesity [1].
- · Obesity also accounts for one fifth of all cardiovascular disease, as well as several major cancers, including breast, kidney, uterine and colorectal cancer [1]
o Disturbingly, the fact that obesity causes cancer is not that widely known. According to a recent study, over 40% of Australians didn’t believe it did [6].
The economic cost of all of this is enormous. In 2008, Access Economics estimated the overall cost of obesity to Australian society and governments to be a whopping $58.2 billion. The net cost of ‘lost wellbeing’ was valued at just under $50 billion, with the direct financial cost to the Australian community an estimated $8.3 billion. Two billion of this was borne by the Australian healthcare system - that’s a Fiona Stanley Hospital. Not to mention the impact on your own hip pocket... almost a third of the direct cost is paid for by individuals.
Clearly, obesity is a problem - one of the biggest facing Australian society. The question is, how can we prevent it getting any worse? How can we best encourage young adults to develop healthy lifestyle behaviours before it is too late? What factors are causing them to be unhealthy in the first place? The rest of this blog will investigate these matters.
References
6. Lorie, A. Report: 'Shocking' number don't know obesity causes cancer. CNN, 2009.
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