Apr

27

(Childhood Obesity News) Zoe McCallum - The Age

Filed Under Childhood Obesity News | Leave a Comment

Here in Australia, data from the most recent nationally representative survey of schoolchildren, the 2004 NSW Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey of 5400 children, indicates that 8% of boys and 6% of girls are obese, with a further 17% of both overweight. Clearly this is an opportunity to ensure the health and wellbeing of our little citizens, and arguably the family doctor is well-placed to perform this check — with, hopefully, knowledge of the child’s family context. Given that at least one in four of these children will be above their healthiest weight, I would hope that GPs or practice nurses would be provided with the training, allied health staff and remuneration for the time required to be spent discussing healthy weight and healthy lifestyle issues with these families. This is not even to touch on the debates that one can be fat and fit, and that assessing a child’s or young person’s overweight status requires a whole family approach and significant skill. Read Childhood Obesity

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