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.

Life expectancy in Australia is currently about 80 for men and 84 for women.

The report shows that overweight Australians, those with a body mass index (BMI) reading between 25 and 30, have a six-month shorter than the average expectancy.

Those who are obese, with a BMI over 30, will live for between 3.5 and 4.5 fewer years.

Prof Daube said the estimates were "very conservative" and dramatic, given lives were being shortened at a time when life expectancy was otherwise increasing for healthy Australians.

"For the first time in our living memory, life expectancy for Australian kids is falling because of the obesity epidemic and it’s becoming a national catastrophe," Prof Daube said.

"This should really send out the alarm bells that we need to make a serious change for the better in the realm of obesity."

Current statistics show 58 per cent of men and 42 per cent of women are either overweight or obese. About a quarter of children fit into either category.

Prof Daube said these figures could be turned around, but only if federal and state governments tackle the problem as a priority.

"Changing behaviour is difficult but if you look at tobacco, 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, we were failing and suddenly now it’s a success story," Prof Daube said.

"We can have the same success with obesity but only if we treat it with that same level of seriousness."

Leading WA health experts have called for legislation to restrict junk food and alcohol promotion and improved labelling in light of the new data.

"The junk food and drinks industries spend at least half a billion dollars a year promoting their products in Australia – McDonald’s alone spend over $50 million a year simply on advertising," Prof Daube said.

"The voluntary codes that are supposed to regulate this form of promotion are failing dismally.

Source: www.medica.com.au

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).

The results revealed that the prevalence of depression was progressively higher as body mass index (BMI) increased from normal to morbidly obese. This result was consistent when depression was defined by current major depressive episode or by PHQ score of 10 or more.

Compared to women with BMI less than 25, the relative odds of having a PHQ score ?10 were 3.83 for those with BMI between 25 and 30, 4.40 for those with BMI between 30 and 35, and 5.72 for those with BMI of 35 or more.

Furthermore, Simon et al. observed a step-wise increase in this association in both directions. “Increasing severity of depressive symptoms was strongly associated with higher risk of obesity, and increasing BMI was strongly associated with higher risk of depressive disorder,” they pointed out.

Analyses examining whether the association between depression and obesity varied according to age, race, marital status and educational attainment revealed no statistically significant association between any of these characteristics (p?0.23).

The authors concluded that a “strong and consistent relationship” exists between obesity and depression among middle-aged women.

Reference
Simon, G. Ludman, E. et al. 2008, ‘Association between obesity and depression in middle-aged women’ General Hospital Psychiatry; 30: 32–39