Childhood obesity in New Zealand: time to look at stronger measures?

Abstract

The recently released report entitled Tackling Obesity by the New Zealand Medical Association has focused our attention on the disturbing problem of obesity in this country.

The prevalence of obesity in New Zealand continues to rise, and a recent international comparative study ranked New Zealand the fourth-worst OECD country behind the United States, Mexico and Hungary. In New Zealand, 1 in 10 boys (10.4%) aged 5–14 years are obese with girls showing a similar prevalence (11.0%).

Māori children are almost twice as likely to be obese as non-Māori, while Pacific children are approximately 4 times more likely to be obese as non-Pacific children. Obesity is a multisystem condition associated with a clustering of complications, including hypercholesterolemia, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, even in children and adolescents.

A major concern is the knowledge that obese children tend to become obese adults, and therefore carry with them the increased risk of chronic diseases, and health care costs, into later life.