Journal article

Aboriginal childhood overweight and obesity: The need for Aboriginal designed and led initiatives

SL Sherriff, LA Baur, MG Lambert, ML Dickson, SJ Eades, S Muthayya

Public Health Research and Practice | SAX INST | Published : 2019

Abstract

Childhood obesity poses an urgent and serious public health challenge in Australia. Aboriginal children are more profoundly affected than non-Aboriginal children, with the gap in weight status between the two groups widening, indicating an increased risk of metabolic disorders earlier in life. Obesity is the second biggest contributor (16%) to the gap in health status between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. The bulk of this gap is attributable to people living in non-remote settings who make up 81% of the total Aboriginal population in Australia. The complex interplay of socioenvironmental factors that contribute to obesity are well known and include prolonged financial stress associat..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by HCF Research Foundation


Funding Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the traditional custodians of Australia and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future. This work was supported by The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre, funded through the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Partnership Centre grant scheme (grant ID: GNT9100001) with the Australian Government Department of Health, the NSW Ministry of Health, ACT Health and the HCF Research Foundation. The work was also funded by grants from the NHMRC through the Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health (SEARCH) (#358457, #1023998 and #1035378). Simone Sherriff was supported by a Turner PhD scholarship from the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney.