The state’s obesity rate could mean we might see the first generation of Queenslanders who have a life expectancy shorter than their parents.
Queensland children born in the decade from 2023 may lose up to five years in average life expectancy if the state’s current obesity rate remains as it is.
The research detailed in the report from the state government agency Health and Wellbeing Queensland, shows there could be a decrease in life expectancy between six months and 4.1 years for the general population born from next year.
For First Nations children born in Queensland it is even worse, with a projected to drop in life expectancy of between 0.95 to 5.1 years.
“It is quite concerning, we might be facing the first generation of Queenslanders whose life expectancy is shorter than their parents,” said lead researcher Rhema Vaithianathan.
“That kind of life expectancy reverses almost two decades of progress of life expectancy.”
These estimates are based on the worst-case scenario where no effective action is taken and obesity rates for children continue to rise. The report said early evidence indicates the pandemic might have worsened the issue.
Around one in four Queensland children and adolescents are overweight or obese, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
“We make it really hard to be healthy,” said Acting Health Minister Steven Miles.
“All of the social determinants we apply to health apply equally to obesity – poverty, insecure housing and poorly paid work.
“You cannot tell me that the unborn babies of 2023 have already decided that they want to be obese, but we can already predict with pretty good accuracy which of them will be, before they make a single decision about what they will eat or when they will exercise.”
The report’s authors also say the current framing around parental responsibility for childhood obesity needs to be corrected.
The report says environmental factors “are making unreasonable demands on parents, and like antismoking legislation which made it easier to quit and to not take up smoking, we need to regulate the environment so that it is easier for parents to maintain a child’s healthy weight”.
