Overweight and obesity

VicHealth is working to reduce obesity trends, which have been increasing since 1995.

The 2007–08 National Health Survey (NHS) found that 24% of Australians aged 18 years and over were obese and a further 37% overweight. The same survey revealed that 25% of Australian children aged 5–17 years were overweight or obese (17% overweight, 8% obese); an increase of 4% from 1995. If this trend continues, it is estimated that nearly three-quarters of Australians will be overweight or obese in 2025. Source: Holman and Smith, 2008, Implications of the obesity epidemic for the life expectancy of Australians.

Within Victoria, particular groups of people are more likely to suffer overweight and obesity due to health inequalities. This includes people from lower socioeconomic groups , Indigenous people, people from culturally diverse communities and people with disabilities. The healthy eating program area, as in other VicHealth program areas, works to understand the development of overweight and obesity in these priority populations.

Reducing overweight and obesity rates

VicHealth works closely with the Obesity Policy Coalition and The Parents Jury to advocate for policy and regulatory reform to support obesity prevention, particularly in children.
The Obesity Policy Coalition (OPC) is an alliance between the Cancer Council Victoria, Diabetes Australia – Victoria, VicHealth and the WHO Collaborating Centre on Obesity Prevention (Deakin University). Their key activities include:

• advocating for regulation of junk food marketing to children
• mandating multiple traffic-light labelling on all foods
• developing policy advice, making submissions and writing formal complaints

The Parents’ Jury provides a forum for parents to learn about and contribute to a range of issues relevant to children, nutrition and health. They run the annual Fame and Shame Awards, which highlight some of the problems in food advertising.

VicHealth has also made policy submissions to government to improve regulation and prevent chronic diet-related disease. Policy submissions include:

• A response to the Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission's issues paper on the Review of Victorian Food Regulation (Feb 2007)
• Parliamentary inquiry into body image among young people and the associated effects on their health and wellbeing September 2004)
• Food and Nutrition Monitoring and Surveillance System (Discussion Paper 2005). 

VicHealth also incorporates healthy eating strategies into other program areas, such as the Healthy Sporting Environments program and health inequalities.