GENEVA (AFP) — Childhood obesity may be
levelling in France in contrast to the general trend in Europe where more
youngsters are growing fat, according to two new studies presented Thursday.
Researchers say they are yet unable to link changes in public health policies to
the stabilising trend, but stress that an increased awareness of the obesity
problem may have had some impact.
However, the studies presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Geneva
also show that children from poorer socio-economic backgrounds are more prone to
fat.
France has moved to introduce measures to combat childhood fat, with vending
machines banned in schools since 2005.
In latest measures unveiled, Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot in February
called for the advertising of certain foods to be stopped voluntarily from
children's television programming.
She had warned that if companies do not take voluntary action to remove such
advertising, laws will be proposed.
"Public health policy has changed a lot in France since 2000, but we cannot
prove that the stabilisation is due to these interventions.
"There has been an increased awareness of the issue of obesity in children and
it's possible that this general awareness has had some impact," said Katia
Castetbon, who heads the nutritional epidemiology and surveillance unit at the
French National Institute for Health Surveillance.
Castetbon's group looked at the prevalence of obesity among seven to
nine-year-olds in 2000 and 2007, and found that there was little change in the
rates in seven years.
In the second survey by the French Food Safety Agency's dietary unit, results
for 2006-2007 were compared with 1998-1999 and found not to show significant
deviation.
However, the survey found that overweight rates were 2.5 to three times higher
in children from the lowest socio-economic group than those from the highest
level.
Castetbon's study also garnered similar findings.
"That indicates that more work needs to be done to adapt the approaches to
address the needs of these children so that the gap can be narrowed," she said.
The EU said in 2007 that an estimated three million Europeans are obese, with
about 85,000 more children becoming obese every year.
