KEY POINTS:
New Zealanders are still getting fatter, but the obesity rate seems to be levelling off, says a health survey issued today.
The survey of more than 17,000 adults and children found no increase since the 2002/3 survey in obesity rates for children and for Maori adults.
The rate for adults has increased, from 24 per cent to around 25-26 per cent, but the speed at which it is increasing has slowed.
And the proportion of adults who are overweight has remained stable at just over 36 per cent.
The Government has been alarmed by the obesity epidemic, and Health Minister David Cunliffe yesterday welcomed the apparent stabilisation among children and Maori adults.
"These are encouraging indications that the obesity tide may be slowing in these groups, but there is a long way to go," he said last night.
The survey found a small reduction in the obesity rate for girls, but it was not considered statistically significant, and the proportion who were overweight was unchanged.
The 2002 nutrition survey, the first national check, found nearly 10 per cent of those aged 5 to 14 were obese and 21 per cent were overweight.
That survey confirmed the observations of diabetes specialists that they were seeing some very overweight children and that type 2 diabetes, traditionally an adult disease, had started to affect an increasing number of youngsters.
In 2006, the Government set up the $67 million Mission-On package to improve the nutrition and physical activity habits of young people, and has stipulated that by the start of the third term this year, only healthy foods and drinks should be sold in state and integrated schools.
A 2003 study found that 40 per cent of deaths were attributable to poor diet and lack of physical activity.
It is also feared that if the rate of obesity is not controlled, the health system will be overwhelmed by increasing numbers of patients with type 2 diabetes.
Dr Brandon Orr-Walker, medical director of the Counties Manukau District Health Board's Let's Beat Diabetes programme, who had not seen the survey, said when told of the trends: "That would be hugely good news and we need it."
Other survey findings were:
* 18 per cent of adults had a potentially hazardous drinking pattern in the 2006/7 survey, which was no change from 1996/97, although for Maori adults there had been an increase since 2002/3.
* 10 per cent of children had been physically punished by their primary caregiver in the four weeks before the survey.
* 71 per cent of children had eaten fast food in the preceding week and 7 per cent had eaten fast food three times or more in that week.
* 47 per cent of children usually used "active transport" (including biking and walking) to get to and from school.
* 64 per cent of children aged 5-14 usually watched two or more hours of TV a day.
