Obesity, Growth Disorders & Nutrition

What is obesity?

Driven by an obesogenic environment – i.e. the collective physical, economic, policy, social and cultural factors that promote obesity – obesity is defined as a person having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more (or equivalent for those younger than 18 years). 

The body mass index (BMI) is a measure that uses a person’s height and weight

Why is it a problem in New Zealand?

Excess weight (obesity) is associated with many health conditions including type 2 diabetes, ischaemic heart disease (IHD), stroke, several common cancers, osteoarthritis, sleep apnoea and reproductive abnormalities in adults. 

Children affected by obesity are more likely to experience obesity as adults and to have abnormal lipid profiles (increased risk of heart disease), impaired glucose tolerance and high blood pressure at a younger age. Obesity is also associated with musculoskeletal problems, asthma, and psychological problems including body dissatisfaction, poor self-esteem, depression and other mental health problems caused by bullying due to weight bias. 

Children live in families, and families live in communities, and without the environment around them being health promoting, it is very difficult for families to achieve persistent healthy lifestyle change. As a country, we can do more to promote a healthy environment for our children.

Combating childhood obesity with good nutrition and healthy eating habits

Better research is needed to understand the broad societal changes that would help prevent and combat childhood obesity. 

Children and their families need access to affordable healthy diets and they also need to be protected from excessive exposure to unhealthy and ultra-processed foods. 

Healthy diets are:

• rich in fruit, vegetables and wholegrains products
• low in highly processed foods as they have high contents of sugar, sodium and fat (examples: sugary drinks, processed meats, confectionary, fast-food products).

But there’s still work to be done. We need to understand the most efficient and effective ways for a healthy diet to reach those most in need.

WHAT ARE WE DOING TO HELP?

Here are just some of the research projects we are funding to help improve nutrition in New Zealand and reduce our rates of youth obesity.

Using broader ‘systems methods’ and mātauranga Māori to improve nutrition for kids

Led by Professor Boyd Swinburn, and based on previous work, this project worked with communities and rangatahi in the Hawke’s Bay to improve children’s nutrition in collaboration with schools, whanau, food providers, and community agencies.

Studying the impact of fish oil during pregnancy on childhood development

Led by Dr. Ben Albert from the University of Auckland, this study examines whether fish oil supplementation during pregnancy can prevent obesity and related child health issues.

Previous research data has suggested that mothers and their babies had improved metabolism when the mothers took fish oil. So this study aimed to track children up to age three to understand the long-term effects on their growth and development, with a focus on addressing health inequities among Māori and Pasifika populations.

Evaluation of a healthy lifestyle app for screening of weight-related health issues

Led by Dr Yvonne Anderson, this project evaluated the implementation of a healthy lifestyle app for children and youth in the multidisciplinary community-based Whānau Pakari programme.

Based in Taranaki, this programme has been successfully running for over a decade, and this research demonstrated that a healthy lifestyle check app can create efficiencies across the patient journey – saving both time and money.

Scoping a national data platform to track young people’s growth trajectories

To address our fragmented data sources, this study — led by Dr Teresa Gontijo de Castro — aimed to scope the creation of an integrated monitoring platform for tracking the growth trajectories of young people (up to the age of 19). This will assist to monitor the implementation of interventions to prevent unhealthy weight among young people by age, region, and socio-demographics.