Obesity in Australia: Interventions and Strategies for Prevention

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OBESITY
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
DISCUSSION............................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Obesity or overweight is a serious health issue and the prevalence rate of obesity or
overweight has been increased over time in Australia. There are various factors that could
trigger obesity such as a diet rich in fats and sugar and inactive life. Obesity has led to the
development of various life-threatening disorders. It has been seen that over two-third
population of Australia has been suffering from obesity or overweight (Moreno et al., 2011).
The Australian government has proposed several strategies reduce the impact of obesity. This
essay will discuss several interventions or strategies that could have a positive effect on
reducing the incidence of obesity in Australia.
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DISCUSSION
Obesity can be explained as deposition of excess fat in the body that may lead to a serious
adverse effect on the health of the individual. Obesity leads to the development of several risk
factors. It could lead to the development of life-threatening condition such as diabetes
mellitus, CVD, high blood pressure and cancer. It has been seen that obesity is very difficult
to treat and there are high chances of relapse rate. People with BMI greater than 30.0 are
considered obese (Dixon, 2010). It has been seen that BMI provide an estimate of body fat
amount. However, it cannot say that BMI directly measures body fat mass because it has
been seen that in some people such as in athletes people, their BMI are generally under obese
category but they do not have extra fat. There are various contributing factors that could
cause obesity such as, family lifestyle, genetics, and lack of sleep, quitting smoking,
pregnancy, age, economic issue, and an unhealthy diet. Obesity and overweight may affect
the quality of life and lead to disability, depression, anxiety, sexual problems, social isolation
and shame and guilt and lower work achievement. In the year 2017-18, around 67 per cent or
two third Australian adult were suffering from obesity or overweight which has been
increased from 63.4 per cent in the year 2014-15 (Walls et al., 2012). 24.9 per cent of
children of age group 5 to 17 year were obese or overweight in the year 2017-18 (Thomas et
al., 2010). It has been seen the prevalence rate of obesity and overweight has been changed
over time in Australia. It has been seen that 1 in every 4 Australian is suffering from obesity
or overweight in the year 2014-15 (Bleich et al., 2013). Around 28 per cent of Australian
adults were suffering from obesity in the year 2014-15 (Bleich et al., 2013).
The government of Australia has taken various interventions and evidence-based practice to
prevent and reverse the action of obesity in Australia. That has been increased from 19 per
cent in the year 1995 (Sacks et al., 2009). It has been seen that obesity has become an
epidemic in Australia and hence serious steps need to be taken in order to reduce the
prevalence rate. At the 12 October 2018, the National Obesity Strategy has been developed
with the help of the Health Council meeting and Council of Australian Government (Sacks et
al., 2009). The main focus of this strategy is to reduce the incidence of obesity or overweight
among Australian people. In this strategy, the National Obesity summit brings experts
together in order to explore the factors that could lead to the development of obesity and
overweight and to agree and recognize on priority areas of action. This strategy has been
planned with the help of various health care professional that are expert in their field. This
strategy targets the aggravating factors that could lead to obesity and provide a various
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measure that could prevent obesity among the Australian. Various health care professionals
are providing advice and guidance in order to manage excess weight (Sacks et al., 2009). This
strategy target a specific group and providing screening session to reduce the impact of
obesity or overweight among the Australian.
Walls et al (2011), state that controlling obesity or overweight has become the topmost
priorities for health care practitioner in developing as well as developed countries. In the
absence of widely accessible high risk, effective and safe approach attention has focused
mainly on social marketing campaigns and community-based approaches as it is one of the
most effective forms of intervention. However, it has been seen that there are some evidences
in order to support the effectiveness of this intervention (Walls et al., 2011). There is some
evidence which shows that social marketing operations and community-based approaches
target specifically obesity and has provided lasting or substantial benefits. However, some
authors have criticized this intervention and said that this intervention focuses on body shape
and size and target media in order to address obesity. Walls et al explained that the chief
cause of increasing the incidence rate of obesity is due to societal changes such as sedentary
lifestyle, reduce physical activity, and increase consumption of high fat and sugar content diet
(Olds et al., 2010). They have proposed obesity-reduction strategies in the form of social
marketing campaigns and community-based approaches that emphasis on the desirability of
the ideal weight of a person. The strategy for accomplishing this is by exercising more, eating
healthier and eating less by the primary focus is the maintenance of shape and healthy body
weight. Most social marketing campaigns and community-based approaches address obesity
through emphasizing on the importance of healthy eating and physical activity.
Forster et al (2011) had conducted a study in order to investigate whether dietary weight loss
strategies can reduce hypertension. A multi-state life-based model has been constructed
which state that body fat distribution can influence the incidence of kidney cancer,
endometrial cancer, colon cancer, post-menopausal cancer, osteoarthritis, DM, ischemic heart
disease, hypertensive heart disease and stroke (Forster et al., 2011). The study had been
conducted in the year 2003 and the target population were obese and overweight in Australia.
Forster et al concluded that diet and exercise management can reduce the incidence of obesity
in Australia and it is potentially cost-effective and can be used in the various age groups.
However, the only drawback of this study is that it has a slight effect on the total body
weight. They found that in the year 1999-2000, around 67 per cent of Australian adult men
and 25 per cent of Australia adult women were classified as obese and overweight (Forster et
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al., 2011). It has been seen that high body mass has been accountable for 7.5 per cent of total
injury and disease burden in Australia in the year 2003 (Forster et al., 2011). There are
several interventions has been designed to reduce the impact of obesity in Australia. The
most common intervention that has been used to reduce excess weight is to reduce calorie in
diet, performing physical exercise or a combination of both. Other such interventions that can
be used are surgery, pharmaceuticals and population-wide program such as conducting health
promotion campaign that could encourage and motivate the population to eat healthy and
perform more physical exercise.
Millar et al (2011) had developed an intervention called as "It's Your Move!" in order to
address obesity. This intervention was a 3-year program that has been executed in various
schools in Australia (Millar et al., 2011). The main attention of these interventions is on
building the capacity of communities, school and families in order to promote physical
activity and healthy eating. This intervention has main target on the diet status and physical
activity performance of the people in Australia. They are providing various behavioural
therapies in order to change the behaviour of people to adopt a healthy lifestyle. They are not
only focused on individual factors but also encompass socio-cultural and environmental
determinants. Priorities have been set to prevention, multi-setting and multi-strategy efforts
with respect to children and adolescents. Multi-strategy obesity prevention strategy has been
started in Australia that encompasses the communities in order to focus on the increasing
incidence of obesity (Millar et al., 2011). This strategy has been adopted by various health
care organizations in order to reduce the effect of obesity on the health of the individual.
Other than this, the intervention has provided various training and development session to the
health care professional in order to teach them to how to provide advice and guidance to the
population of Australia and how to motivate them to adopt a healthy lifestyle. The IYM
program has been target specific age group that is 12 to 18-year secondary school student and
their families (Millar et al., 2011).
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CONCLUSION
This essay concluded that effective and well-proved intervention must be planned to reduce
the incidence of obesity or overweight among the Australian. The various scientists have
proposed various interventions that specially targets a specific group. The IYM program has
been developed to target 12 to 18-year secondary school student to reduce the rate of
overweight or obesity (Millar et al., 2011). The interventions have the main focus on the
lifestyle of the individual. These interventions are providing guidance and advice in order to
manage excess weight. It has been seen that health care professionals are playing an
important role in order to address obesity among Australian. They are encouraging and
motivating people to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
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REFERENCES
Bleich, S.N., Segal, J., Wu, Y., Wilson, R. and Wang, Y., 2013. Systematic review of
community-based childhood obesity prevention studies. Pediatrics, 132(1), pp.e201-e210.
Dixon, J.B., 2010. The effect of obesity on health outcomes. Molecular and cellular
endocrinology, 316(2), pp.104-108.
Forster, M., Veerman, J.L., Barendregt, J.J. and Vos, T., 2011. Cost-effectiveness of diet and
exercise interventions to reduce overweight and obesity. International Journal of Obesity,
35(8), p.1071.
Millar, L., Kremer, P., de Silva‐Sanigorski, A., McCabe, M.P., Mavoa, H., Moodie, M.,
Utter, J., Bell, C., Malakellis, M., Mathews, L. and Roberts, G., 2011. Reduction in
overweight and obesity from a 3‐year community‐based intervention in Australia: the ‘It's
Your Move!’project. obesity reviews, 12, pp.20-28.
Moreno, L.A., Pigeot, I. and Ahrens, W., 2011. Epidemiology of obesity in children and
adolescents. Prevalence and etiology, Nueva York: Springer.
Olds, T.S., Tomkinson, G.R., Ferrar, K.E. and Maher, C.A., 2010. Trends in the prevalence
of childhood overweight and obesity in Australia between 1985 and 2008. International
journal of obesity, 34(1), p.57.
Sacks, G., Swinburn, B. and Lawrence, M., 2009. Obesity Policy Action framework and
analysis grids for a comprehensive policy approach to reducing obesity. Obesity reviews,
10(1), pp.76-86.
Thomas, S.L., Lewis, S., Hyde, J., Castle, D. and Komesaroff, P., 2010. " The solution needs
to be complex." Obese adults' attitudes about the effectiveness of individual and population
based interventions for obesity. BMC Public Health, 10(1), p.420.
Walls, H.L., Magliano, D.J., Stevenson, C.E., Backholer, K., Mannan, H.R., Shaw, J.E. and
Peeters, A., 2012. Projected progression of the prevalence of obesity in Australia. Obesity,
20(4), pp.872-878.
Walls, H.L., Peeters, A., Proietto, J. and McNeil, J.J., 2011. Public health campaigns and
obesity-a critique. BMC public health, 11(1), p.136.
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