Overweight and obesity from childhood to adulthood: a follow‐up of participants in the 1985 Australian Schools Health and Fitness Survey

Overweight and obesity from childhood to adulthood: a follow‐up of participants in the 1985 Australian Schools Health and Fitness Survey

“…While age and cohort effects could not be clearly separated in the 1985 Australian Schools Health and Fitness Survey, the prevalence of overweight and obesity increased with age in 7–15‐year‐olds 1 . Our data collected from 4571 of the individuals in that survey at follow‐up about 20 years later also showed an increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity with age, although these findings were not presented in our report 2 …”

Folate status and socio‐demographic predictors of folate status, among a national cohort of women aged 26–36 in Australia, 2004–2006

“…Details of sampling methods and participation in the ASHFS and the CDAH study have been published elsewhere. 9 Blood samples were collected from 2,538 participants including 1,341 women. Of the blood samples collected, sufficient stored samples remained for serum folate analysis from 1,047 women.…”

Overweight and obesity from childhood to adulthood: a follow‐up of participants in the 1985 Australian Schools Health and Fitness Survey

“…We recently reported that year of birth (birth cohort) also predicts prevalence of overweight and obesity, independent of age and survey period; the prevalence of overweight and obesity in adults increased progressively with birth cohorts born since 1960 4 . This birth span includes the cohort in the study by Venn et al 1 While obesity begins in childhood for only a small proportion of adults, the so‐called healthy weight children now have a higher mean BMI, giving little margin for the seemingly inevitable increases in weight with ageing, before the population mean BMI reaches the cutpoint for overweight and later obesity. The 2004–2005 National Health Survey showed that men reached the overweight cutpoint at 25–29 years and women reached it at 30–34 years 5…”

“…Given increasing child and adult obesity, the need for allocation of public health resources to improve dietary and physical activity habits is undisputed. However, these data 1 , 4 indicate that efforts should be directed to the hard‐to‐reach group, young adults, to prevent weight gain at this point. This will pose considerable challenges, because this group has minimal contact with health services, and perceives the threat of chronic illness as irrelevant.…”

“…To the Editor : The recent article by Venn et al reported that childhood overweight carries through into adult overweight and obesity, but that most obese young adults in their study were “healthy” weight as children in 1985 1 . As demonstrated by National Health Surveys, age is one of the strongest predictors of overweight, 2 with body mass index (BMI) increasing as we grow older.…”