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The economics of food choice: Is this a majordriver of obesity among Indigenous Australiansand other disadvantaged groups?

Kerin O’Dea

Sansom Institute for Health Research, Universityof South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

Overweight and obesity occur at very high ratesand from a young age in Indigenous Australian pop-ulations. This drives very high rates of diabetes,heart disease and associated conditions such askidney failure, amputations and blindness at everyounger ages. These conditions are causing mostdamage in what should be the most productiveyears of life. For example, in the 20—50 year agegroup diabetes is 10—15 times higher and deathsfrom heart disease 10 times higher than for otherAustralians. While in the general population 76% ofacute myocardial infarctions (AMI) occur in peopleover 65 years, almost 80% of AMIs among Indigenouspeople occur before age 65. Much of this ill-health(and particularly in remote communities) is due toextremely poor nutrition across the lifespan, wherevery low incomes combine with limited availabil-ity and high cost of fresh high quality food. Lowincome people tend to maximize calories/$, andtherefore choose the low cost foods that are richin fat, sugar and salt. Over the past 25—30 years,the cost differential between healthy foods andunhealthy processed foods rich in fat and sugar haswidened, in parallel with the rising prevalence ofobesity. While health promotion activities in rela-tion to healthy diets have an important role to play,they cannot succeed without also addressing fun-damental systemic issues of availability, cost andsustainability. A number of potential interventionswill be discussed.

doi:10.1016/j.orcp.2010.09.162

How sedentary are our young people?

Louise L. Hardy

Prevention Research Collaboration, PhysicalActivity, Nutrition, and Obesity Research Group(PANORG), The University of Sydney

There are powerful societal inducements to beinactive and there are increasing concerns of anemerging preference among young people to adoptsedentary lifestyles. Young people who spend alarge amount of time in sedentary activities are at

risk of the development of chronic disease includ-ing coronary heart disease, colon cancer, type2-diabetes, and overweight. There is, however,surprisingly little evidence to substantiate the per-

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Invited Speakers

eption that sedentary lifestyles have increasedubstantially among Australian children and ado-escents. Consequently, there are good reasons tomprove our understanding of sedentary behaviourmong young people.

Most studies of sedentary behaviour amongoung people have focused on recreational screenime (ST), including television-viewing and com-uter use. While there is little doubt that STccounts for a substantial proportion of theime that many young people spend in sedentaryehaviour, this is only one domain of sedentarinessn which young people engage. Young people alsopend time sitting and talking with their friends,n activity that serves many important social andognitive developmental needs. Similarly, engagingn sedentary hobbies and crafts are common andalued pastimes for many young people.

In most developed countries, formal school edu-ation is mandatory and in many societies there istrong competition for places in tertiary educationnstitutions. As a consequence, many young peopleevote substantial amounts of their discretionaryime to studying to improve their academic perfor-ance. There is also growing evidence that youngeople are replacing active transport, particularchool transport, with car travel.

Efforts to target sedentary behaviour amongoung people will be enhanced by a more thoroughnderstanding of the time which is spent in differ-nt domains of sedentary activities and how thesectivities differ by sex, age, and other demographicactors.

oi:10.1016/j.orcp.2010.09.163

iet related outcomes for children and adoles-ents in obesity research: Recommendations foresearch and practice

nthea Magarey

School of Medicine, Flinders University

The role of food intake in the aetiology, preven-ion and management of obesity is well recognisedith energy balance being the fundamental out-ome of interest. However we can never trulyescribe usual intake. A number of dietary intakeethods can provide a reasonable estimate of

nergy intake but these have considerable subjectnd or researcher burden and are often beyond thenancial possibilities and expertise of many stud-

es. In addition without a simultaneous estimatef energy expenditure, which is equally difficultnd burdensome to determine, it is not possibleo identify the energy balance state. A number