Obesity and Community Children

Obesity and Community Children
Childhood Obesity in Queensland, Australia
• One of the most severe public health challenges in Australia is of childhood obesity.
• The most critically affected population is of the Aboriginals, creating a gap of over 16% in the health
status between the indigenous and non-indigenous community (Sherriff et al., 2019).
• Lack of proper Aboriginal governance and policies are the primary concerns leading to increase in the gap
of the health status.
• The rates of childhood obesity amongst the indigenous community in Queensland is higher at 30% than
the state average of 26% (Queensland Health., 2020).
Impact of Childhood Obesity
 Incidence of childhood obesity affects the emotional, social and physical well-being of the children,
leading to poor self-esteem and lower quality of life.
 Childhood Obesity is linked with economic adverse impact on the community, with increase in the
spending on treatment of health conditions stroke, hypertension, asthma, type 2 diabetes, coronary
heart disease (CHD), hypercholesterolemia, and arthritis (Black , Hughes & Jones, 2018).
 Increase of immediate health risks in the population such as of cardiovascular diseases, insulin
resistance, glucose tolerance impairment and diabetes are long-term consequences of childhood obesity
on the population.
Key Areas for Change to Reduce Childhood Obesity
 Changes in the existing programs and policies associated with Australian Child Obesity for the
children from Aboriginal community.
 Increasing the healthcare workforce for the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people.
 Increased collaboration of parents with the consultation programs to ensure usability and
applicability of the resources provided to the community.
Health Promotion Action Plan
 To improve the collaboration of the parents with health consultation programs, the remote
schools will be targeted.
 Professional staffs will be deployed in these schools with adequate funding to conduct health
development sessions with the children and parents.
 The programs will be culturally appropriate and healthcare workforce will largely constitute of
individuals from the indigenous community.
 The key highlights of the sessions will be healthy eating and diet planning, prevention
strategies and actions to maximise the
 The key objective would be to incorporate the whole community in implementing changes in
the eating habits, physical activities and the lifestyle.
References
Black , N., Hughes, R., & Jones, A. M. (2018). The health care costs of childhood obesity in
Australia: An instrumental variables approach. Economics & Human Biology, 31, 1-13.
Queensland Health. (2020). Tackling Childhood Overweight and Obesity within Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander People. Clinical Excellence Queensland | Queensland Health.
Retrieved 6 April 2020, from https://clinicalexcellence.qld.gov.au/improvement-
exchange/tackling-childhood-overweight-obesity-atsi
Sherriff, S. L., Baur, L., Lambert, M. G., Dickson, M., Eades, S. J., & Muthayya, S. (2019).
Aboriginal childhood overweight and obesity: the need for Aboriginal designed and led
initiatives. Public Health Research & Practice, 29(4).