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More Kids, Adults Too Fat, Says StatsCan, Raising Chronic Disease Concerns

Posted on: Wednesday, 6 July 2005, 18:00 CDT

OTTAWA (CP) - Too many Canadian kids are too fat, and if they and their parents don't do something about it, they face a future of diabetes, osteoarthritis and heart disease, health officials warned Wednesday.

The concerns followed release of a Statistics Canada study indicating some obesity rates in the country have more than doubled. The rising number of obese and overweight children is "particularly disconcerting because obese and overweight children tend to be obese and overweight adults," said Dr. Gregory Taylor.

"This is going to influence and cause a lot of increases in chronic disease," added Taylor, head of Chronic Disease Prevention and Control at the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Obese and overweight children "will be experiencing the risks of that for their entire lifetimes. It's very alarming."

The StatsCan study, the first comprehensive nutrition survey in more than 30 years, says that three per cent of children ages 12 to 17 were obese in 1978-79. That figure had risen to eight per cent, or 500,000 fat kids, by 2004.

For the first time, the study actually measured height and weight rather than relying on the word of respondents.

It suggests 26 per cent of children between 12 and 17 are either obese or overweight.

Meanwhile, adult obesity rates rose to 23 per cent from 14 per cent over the same period.

"Are we concerned that the trends will continue? Absolutely concerned," Taylor said.

Even so, Canada's adult obesity rate was significantly lower than that in the United States, where 30 per cent of adults were obese in 2004.

The statistics shouldn't be any surprise to health professionals, who are seeing more cases of chronic disease than ever.

As expected, obesity was related to diet and exercise - what Diane Finegood of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research called "a small imbalance of energy in and energy out compounded, like a mortgage, on a daily basis."

Solving the problem will require a multi-faceted approach, officials said.

"Our environment has changed fundamentally," said Mary Bush, head of nutrition, policy and promotion at Health Canada.

"Food is very available. Portion sizes are very large. The energy density, or the calorie level, of the foods that are readily available are very significant."

And society as a whole is more sedentary.

"Watching television, playing video games and using the computer are common pastimes for many Canadian children," says the study.

More than a third of children between six and 11 years old logged more than two hours of so-called "screen time" each day. They were twice as likely to be obese or overweight as children logging an hour or less.

The relatively recent introduction and proliferation of video games and home computers hampers efforts to track screen time over long periods.

A 1988 survey put weekly TV viewing among 12-to-17-year-olds at nine hours. That figure now stands at about 10 hours. But add computer and video games, and screen time among adolescents averages 20 hours a week.

Government can do its part with awareness and public information programs but it's not enough, officials said.

"This isn't only the health sector, this is all sectors that need to respond," Bush said.

Among children, at least, parental control is "absolutely critical," she said. "But we also have to recognize that families themselves have changed."

The number of single-parent and double-income households have increased. "Latch-key" children are far more common than they used to be.

"Even parents are challenged," said Bush. "They may have the best will in the world, but they get there late and they need to address an issue of feeding their family and getting up the next day.

"It's a challenge that we all have to rise to."

The study found that while rates of overweight and obesity among youths varied across Canada, the highest rates were in the Atlantic provinces.

It says adults who ate fruit and vegetables less than three times a day were more likely to be obese than were those who consumed such foods five or more times a day.

Marital status, education and income also influenced obesity.

"Men living in higher income households tended to have higher chances of being obese," the agency said.

"Women coming from middle-income households had higher levels of obesity."

Source: Canadian Press

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