Source: Medica

Obese Australian kids will live two years less than their slimmer counterparts, according to new research showing obesity shortens life.

A study by researchers at the University of Western Australia shows that the life expectancy of obese adults is reduced by four years.

But perhaps more alarming is that if current obesity trends in Australian children continue, expectancy of life for those alive now will fall two years by the time they are 20.

Girls are slightly harder hit than boys.

Professor Mike Daube, director of the Perth-based Public Health Advocacy Institute which commissioned the research, said this was the first Australian data to prove obesity would shorten life.

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Source: General Hospital Psychiatry

Researchers have found a strong and consistent association between depression and obesity among middle-aged women, which is independent of confounding factors such as age, race, marital status and level of education.

Obesity and its consequences are a major public health problem. Since the 1970s epidemiological studies have examined a possible association between obesity and depression with mixed results – some found a negative association, others a positive association limited to women, and some found there to be no association at all.

Simon and co-workers suggest that methodological differences may account for this variability. In their current research, they used data from a large sample of middle-aged women to assess the association between various levels of obesity with depression severity.

A total of 4641 women aged between 40 and 65 years completed a population-based survey. The survey was conducted via a structured telephone interview that included self-reported height, weight, ethnicity, marital status, tobacco use and educational background, as well as an assessment of depression using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ).

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