Association of key foods and beverages with obesity in Australian schoolchildren

Objective: To examine the pattern of intake of key foods and beverages of children aged 4&ndash;12 years and the association with weight status.Design and setting: A computer-assisted telephone interview was used to determine the intake of fruit, vegetables, packaged snacks, fast foods and sweetened drinks &lsquo;yesterday&rsquo; and &lsquo;usually&rsquo; as reported by parents/guardians of a representative sample of 2184 children from the Barwon South-Western region of Victoria, Australia.Results: Children who consumed .2&ndash;3, .3&ndash;4 and .4 servings of fruit juice/drinks &lsquo;yesterday&rsquo; were, respectively, 1.7 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2&ndash;2.2), 1.7 (95% CI 1.2&ndash;2.5) and 2.1 (95% CI 1.5&ndash;2.9) times more likely to be overweight/obese compared with those who had no servings of fruit juice/drink &lsquo;yesterday&rsquo;, adjusted for age, gender and socio-economic status (SES). Further, children who had $3 servingsof soft drink &lsquo;yesterday&rsquo; were 2.2 (95% CI 1.3&ndash;3.9) times more likely to beoverweight/obese compared with those who had no servings of soft drink &lsquo;yesterday&rsquo;, adjusted for age, gender and SES. In addition, children who &lsquo;usually&rsquo; drank fruit juice/drinks twice or more per day were 1.7 (95% CI 1.2&ndash;2.4) times more likely to be overweight/obese compared with those who drank these beverages once or less per week, adjusted for age, gender and SES. Although fast foods and packaged snacks were regularly eaten, there were no associations between weight status andconsumption of these foods.Conclusions: Intake of sweetened beverages was associated with overweight and obesity in this population of Australian schoolchildren and should be a target for intervention programmes aimed at preventing unhealthy weight gain in children.<br /

The cost-effectiveness of removing television advertising of high-fat and/or high-sugar food and beverages to Australian children

Objective: To model the health benefits and cost-effectiveness of banning television (TV) advertisements in Australia for energy-dense, nutrient-poor food and beverages during children\u27s peak viewing times.Methods: Benefits were modelled as changes in body mass index (BMI) and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) saved. Intervention costs (AUD$) were compared with future health-care cost offsets from reduced prevalence of obesity-related health conditions. Changes in BMI were assumed to be maintained through to adulthood. The comparator was current practice, the reference year was 2001, and the discount rate for costs and benefits was 3$ 3.70 (95% uncertainty interval (UI) $2.40,$7.70) per DALY. Total DALYs saved were 37 000 (95% UI 16 000, 59 000). When the present value of potential savings in future health-care costs was considered (AUD$300m (95$130m, $480m), the intervention was \u27dominant\u27, because it resulted in both a health gain and a cost offset compared with current practice.Conclusions: Although recognizing the limitations of the available evidence, restricting TV food advertising to children would be one of the most cost-effective population-based interventions available to governments today. Despite its economic credentials from a public health perspective, the initiative is strongly opposed by food and advertising industries and is under review by the current Australian government.<br /

How children eat may contribute to rising levels of obesity children's eating behaviours: An intergenerational study of family influences

The term ‘obesogenic environment’ is rapidly becoming part of common phraseology. However, the influence of the family and the home environment on children's eating behaviours is little understood. Research that explores the impact of this micro environment and intergenerational influences affecting children's eating behaviours is long overdue. A qualitative, grounded theory approach, incorporating focus groups and semi-structured interviews, was used to investigate the family environment and specifically, the food culture of different generations within families. What emerged was a substantive theory based on ‘ordering of eating’ that explains differences in eating behaviours within and between families. Whereas at one time family eating was highly ordered and structured, typified by the grandparent generation, nowadays family eating behaviours are more haphazard and less ordered, evidenced by the way the current generation of children eat. Most importantly, in families with an obese child eating is less ordered compared with those families with a normal weight child. Ordering of eating' is a unique concept to emerge. It shows that an understanding of the eating process is crucial to the development and improvement of interventions targeted at addressing childhood obesity within the family context