Health Minister Jonathan Coleman eyes child obesity target

New Zealand has the third highest rate of adult obesity in the OECD behind Mexico and the United States. Photo / Thinkstock

Health Minister’s inquiry puts him in step with health campaigners as Kiwis outweigh people elsewhere in OECD.

Health Minister Jonathan Coleman is looking at introducing a Health Target to control child obesity.

The move would put him in step with public health campaigners although their full prescription is likely to be much stricter than the Government could stomach.

New Zealand has the third highest rate of adult obesity in the OECD behind Mexico and the United States, although rates in other regions, notably some Pacific islands, are far higher than in developed countries.

The NZ Medical Association has called for a broad front to tackle obesity, with measures such as a tax on sugary drinks, greater protection of children from the marketing of unhealthy foods, traffic light food labelling and a halt to fast-food outlets opening near schools.

Health Minister Jonathan Coleman. Photo / NZME.

Dr Coleman said the Government would not introduce a sugar tax because it wouldn't work. But when asked if he was considering making child obesity control the seventh ministerial Health Target, he said, "That is something I'm asking officials for advice on. We haven't had any Cabinet discussions around that yet but we will be reviewing the Health Targets later in the year."

Dr Coleman said he had sought advice on obesity control from health and sport officials and from the Prime Minister's Chief Science Adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman, who was last year made co-chair of the World Health Organisation's Commission to End Childhood Obesity.

Dr Coleman was speaking before the release today of a government report that recommends more study of the economic and social costs of obesity. The sole New Zealand study on this estimated that excess bodyweight reduced national productivity by $98 million to $225 million in 2006, on top of health care costs of $624 million. But the new report, citing Australian data, suggests the lost productivity may be much higher.

Auckland University obesity expert Professor Boyd Swinburn, representing 40 public health specialists, is scheduled to meet Dr Coleman at his Beehive office today to discuss a child obesity target. "We want to show there's substantial public health support if he wants to go down this track," Professor Swinburn said.

He wants the Government to aim for reducing our rate of obese and overweight children from around a third at present to around a quarter - Australia's current rate - by 2025.

He and a colleague wrote in the NZ Medical Journal in November that while NZ's rate remained "very high", those in several other OECD countries were "flattening or decreasing".