'Urgent action' needed to tackle childhood obesity

Nothing was being done about obesity among Maltese children despite awareness of the problem, the principal scientific officer (nutrition) at the Health Promotion Department, Yvette Azzopardi, said, stressing the urgent need for an action plan to deal with the issue.

According to the World Health Organisation's health behaviour survey among schoolchildren, carried out in 2002, Maltese 13-year-old boys and girls topped the obesity list, surpassing the US.

In fact, 13.5 per cent of the boys and 17 per cent of the girls were obese. Among the 15-year-olds, 12 per cent of Maltese boys and girls were obese - just below the US average.

"Tackling obesity should be part of a public health strategy. But, unfortunately, there is no such thing," Ms Azzopardi said.

She called for a concerted effort and the joining of forces to deal with and prioritise the matter. The Health Ministry would take a leading role in the creation of an action plan but the problem of obesity among Maltese children did not fall solely and squarely within its remit.

Other sectors, including education and even transport - in terms of urban planning to encourage physical activity and road safety to encourage the use of bicycles and walking, for example - would have to be involved, she said.

The Health Promotion Department organised talks in schools and disseminated valuable information through publications but the educational aspect was still not enough, Ms Azzopardi maintained. The issue had to be tackled from the overall environmental and cultural points of view as well.

Ms Azzopardi was speaking in the wake of action to deal with the obesity problem in the United Kingdom, with the banning of junk food adverts from children's TV.

She said that, in the UK context, the strategy was positive but Malta was far behind the UK in terms of dealing with obesity and it was not a matter of banning advertising.

The first step on the local scene was to put obesity on the political agenda, Ms Azzopardi argued. Even the UK MPs' report - the most comprehensive study to date - was calling for obesity to be addressed at the highest levels of government, criticising the government for its naïve approach to the issue.

The local health authorities form part of a network of EU experts which meets twice a year to share information on physical activity and nutrition. It discusses best practices related to nutrition. Obesity tops the list but that is where the action stops, Ms Azzopardi said.

The Education Ministry should not have accepted, for example, Coca-Cola's sponsorship of an active lifestyle campaign in schools. Coca-Cola is a soft drink and the message of the campaign is highly conflicting - "promoting physical activity and telling children that soft drinks are fine".

Nevertheless, the Health Promotion Department continues to play its role and is planning a campaign for the next scholastic year, promoting fruit and vegetables, which would indirectly target obesity.

The Bahrija primary school has shown a keen interest in the campaign and has decided to include it in its development plan.

The aim of the pilot project is to promote the intake of fruit and vegetables and includes a survey to asses whether the schoolchildren eat the recommended amounts of healthy foods, followed by an evaluation of the results.

The campaign would hopefully be spread to more schools, depending on their interest and also on resources, Ms Azzopardi said.

It was important for schools to implement a food policy, whereby they would ensure, for example, that food sold in tuck shops was in accordance with healthy eating guidelines and that any events sponsored by schools and the Education Department followed these guidelines too.

The Health Promotion Department has already worked on a food policy document with the Home Economics Department at the university. It had to be presented to the Education Division but the outcome of the exercise was not known, Ms Azzopardi said.