Obesity epidemic puts Aussies above Americans

19-Jun-2008

Tamara McLean

Herald Sun

June 19, 2008 12:00am

AUSTRALIA is the world's most overweight nation, ahead of the notoriously supersized Americans, according to a new study.

The report shows nine million Australian adults are fatter than they should be.

 Experts are now calling for extreme measures like gym discounting and denial of surgery based on body mass index (BMI) to rectify the situation.

"These might be controversial but they won't just be targeting a small sub-set of Australians," said Professor Simon Stewart, head of preventative cardiology at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute.

"Overweight and obese people now make up the vast majority of us and these are the drastic measures now needed to bring these numbers down."

The report, released ahead of the federal government's obesity inquiry, presents the results of height and weight checks carried out on 14,000 adult Australians nationwide in 2005.

It gives the most thorough picture of obesity since the AusDiab study in 1999, and Prof Stewart, who authored it, says it shows the burden has been underplayed.

"Based on the old data and self-reported surveys, we had thought that seven million adults were obese or overweight, but it is actually nine million," he said.

"That is a whole million more obese adults than we had thought."

The report, entitled "Australia's Future Fat Bomb", shows the middle-aged are leading the way, with seven in 10 men and six on 10 women aged 45 to 64 now registering a BMI of 25 or more.

An analysis of the data shows that there will be an extra 700,000 heart-related hospital admissions in the next 20 years due to obesity alone.

Almost 125,000 people will die as a result, many prematurely.

"I would regard this as now the biggest threat to our future health," Prof Stewart said.

"As we send our athletes off to the Olympics let's reflect on the fact that we would win the gold medal problem now in the world fat Olympics if there was such a thing.

"We used to be down mid-table, but I'm picking that we're now the gold medal favourites."

The report calls for a national weightloss strategy on the scale of smoking and skin cancer campaigns, including subsidising gym memberships and personal training sessions for heavier people.

Wait lists for surgery could be prioritised on the basis of weightloss.

"These are some of the controversial things we need to deal with because the healthcare system is going to be overwhelmed by weight-related hospitalisations from knee replacements through to heart attacks and strokes."

Professor Ian Caterson, director of the Institute of Obesity, Nutrition and Exercise at the University of Sydney, agreed such measures were needed.

"Governments have to start thinking outside the square because as we get fatter and older as a nation things are just going to get worse," Prof Caterson said.

Source: Tamara McLean, Obesity epidemic puts Aussies above Americans (2008) Baker Heart Research Institute < http://baker.edu.au/News.aspx?newsID=91&TopicID=654> at 20/06/08