The Post

Children still obese in poorer suburbs

- Ruby Macandrew ruby.macandrew@stuff.co.nz

‘‘In the areas we work in . . . you’re hard-pressed to find a healthy feed . . . you’re bombarded with fast-food . . . ’’

Obesity is still a major problem in children in low-income areas, despite other parts of New Zealand appearing to be winning the battle of the bulge.

Between 2010 and 2016, the rate of obesity among 4-year-olds declined in the majority of communitie­s but often by less than 1 per cent, research published this week in The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health shows.

Led by Dr Sheree Gibb from the University of Otago, the researcher­s found that children living in high-income areas such as Queenstown were less likely to be overweight than their counterpar­ts in lower income areas.

Using data from the Ministry of Health’s B4 School Check Programme, alongside ethnicity and deprivatio­n informatio­n, they found a third of the variation in obesity prevalence between communitie­s could be explained by the socioecono­mic and urban compositio­n of the community.

A further 10 per cent could be explained by the ethnic compositio­n

David Letele

of communitie­s.

‘‘[It] suggests that the community in which a child lives is a particular­ly strong predictor of their obesity risk.’’

Health and fitness motivator David Letele – also known as the Brown Buttabean – has seen the prevalence of childhood obesity firsthand while working in some of the lowest income areas in the country.

He said the research team’s findings were unsurprisi­ng.

‘‘In the areas we work in, like South Auckland, you’re hardpresse­d to find a healthy feed . . . you’re bombarded with fast-food, liquor stores, everything.

‘‘There’s no McDonalds in Mission Bay but there’s a lot of them in South Auckland; there’s a definite difference.’’

Having once weighed in at 210 kilograms, Letele now helps turn other lives around in boot camps around Auckland and through his Buttabean Motivation page online.

While it had been mostly adults taking up the challenge, he said the advice and motivation given quickly trickled down to their children. ‘‘The kids are only eating what we’re giving them ... we need to sow the seed while they are young so it’s also about educating the parents.’’

Letele applauded one suggestion­s made by the researcher­s to have more regionally-focused public health campaigns set up to target the most in-need areas.

‘‘The whole system to me is broken and they [the Government] need to look at the grassroots’ level, to see what’s working and fund that,’’ he added.

Currently, the Ministry of Health’s childhood obesity plan is made up of 22 initiative­s, with the B4 School Check its cornerston­e programme.

Its guidelines require that children identified as obese are referred to a health profession­al for clinical assessment and familybase­d nutrition, plus activity and lifestyle interventi­ons.

However, the deputy director of public health, Dr Harriette

Carr, said with many of those actions having been implemente­d, or completed, the ministry was in the process of reviewing its approach to obesity.

According to the OECD’s 2017 figures, child obesity rates are highest in Greece, Italy and New Zealand, with the latest New Zealand Health Survey confirming that 1 in 8 Kiwi children aged 2 to 14 are obese.

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