Childhood Obesity in the Pacific: Challenges and Opportunities
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Childhood Obesity in the Pacific: Challenges and Opportunities Amerita Ravuvu 1 & Gade Waqa 2 Accepted: 5 October 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Purpose of Review Childhood obesity is increasing substantially in many Pacific island countries and poses an urgent and serious challenge. The Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations and the NCD Roadmap created at the request of the Pacific Finance and Economic Ministers identify prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases as core priorities. Among the various risk factors responsible for the development of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), overweight and obesity are particularly of concern with the potential to negate many of the health benefits that have contributed to increased life expectancy. With the increase in childhood obesity across the region, it has become apparent that surveillance data remains a challenge; however, it is essential to inform the development of effective policies and strategies to tackle the challenge of childhood obesity in the Pacific region. Recent Findings The paper highlights the paucity of childhood obesity surveillance data available in the Pacific region and how the absence of a standardised tool to collect this data makes it difficult to do comparative analysis between countries. Summary Drawing on a global protocol and identifying the gaps that currently exist in the region, the paper aims to highlight opportunities via which childhood obesity surveillance data can be improved to monitor better childhood obesity across the Pacific region. Keywords Childhood obesity . Overweight . Pacific ECHO . Pacific MANA . COSI . Surveillance
Introduction There is an increasing prevalence of overweight and obese children globally with monitored trends from 2010 to 2016 indicating that the rate has been very alarming in the Western Pacific region [1]. If the trend continues, there will be more obese than underweight children in 2022. The Western Pacific region is home to one-quarter of the world’s population covering 37 countries in the Pacific, Oceania and parts of Asia. These countries comprise high-income to low-income ones, some with exploding populations and others that are rapidly This article is part of the Topical Collection on The Obesity Epidemic: Causes and Consequences * Amerita Ravuvu [email protected] 1
Non-Communicable Disease Policy & Planning Adviser, Public Health Division, Pacific Community (SPC), C/- Pacific Community (SPC), Private Mail Bag, Suva, Fiji
2
Pacific Research Centre for the Prevention of Obesity and Non-Communicable Diseases (C-POND), Fiji Institute of Pacific Health Research, College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, Fiji National University (FNU), Suva, Fiji
ageing. It includes China with the largest number of people with diabetes globally as well as Pacific island countries and territories (PICTs) in Oceania with the highest prevalence rates [2]. The top 10 countries with the highest prevalence of adult obesity globally can also
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