Culture can feed childhood obesity
INTERVENTION strategies in childhood obesity in South Africa need to be tailored to address culturally-specific challenges, a new study has found.
Research by US academics, published in the latest Journal of Obesity, found that cultural factors, like a fat stomach being a symbol of power or of being from a well-off family, were some of the reasons why children were raised with unhealthy lifestyles.
Researchers conducted extensive interviews with 21 childminders and health workers in the Cape Town area to discover perceived factors influencing childhood obesity. Findings were illustrated by selected quotes from respondents, which represented common themes among them.
Respondents said fatness being a “signifier of power” was a concern for them.
“I think our culture doesn’t care about what children eat. They like the children to be big in order for people to see that this child’s family (is) well-off,” one person said.
Cultural food being inherently unhealthy was another concern.
Familial factors such as comfort-feeding children and overfeeding also came up.
Environmental factors were reported too: “A parent encourages a child to stay at home because it’s safer in the house than outside,” one said.
Another added: “How can you walk to the park when you’re likely to be assaulted or raped?”
Respondents said there was insufficient attention given to promoting healthy diets and physical activity in schools.
They expressed serious concern at children suffering chronic diseases in later life should things continue this way. “Children will feel tired, you see them tired and they get sick. Most of the time that will cause a heart attack as well as diabetes.”
Professor Carin Napier of the Durban University of Technology’s Department of Food and Nutrition agreed that culture was crucial when it came to one’s nutritional health.
“Overweight can be seen as ‘happiness and affluence’ and it is a much stronger view in some cultures. So when children grow up as overweight, the parents may see it as good caring practices.”
Napier flagged the cost of nutritious food as another problem, saying many were forced to rely on staples. She said interventions should look to diversify diets “to address all requirements of the body”.
She said intervening on the cultural aspect of eating could prove difficult. “To change people’s way of doing things is a long-term process. It has to be an ongoing bombardment of messages about health, healthy eating and the consequences of not following a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle.”
She said, however, that the costs of such campaigns meant they were rarely pursued.
The Mercury reported last August on a study that called for ethno-specific intervention strategies to solve health issues in the Indian community.