Nats snubbed obesity target advice

THE Government snubbed advice from its health officials to set an aggressive target on childhood obesity, internal reports show.

Labour says the documents show that the Government watered down its plan to tackle obesity for fear of falling short.

The Ministry of Health report, from paediatrician and chief child and youth health adviser Pat Tuohy, recommended establishing a target to ensure a certain percentage of 4-year-olds were starting school at a healthy weight.

The report said there was a strong case for setting a weight target for children to meet before they started school, as it was a ‘‘key life course transition phase’’.

‘‘Setting a target for children starting school would be easy for the public to understand and support.’’ The B4 School Checks programme was already providing good data on the weight of children and could be used to support the goal.

It said the target could be that 75 per cent of 4-year-olds were a healthy weight by 2020. The report recommended that the goal be set as part of the Government’s better public services (BPS) targets, ‘‘as health alone cannot achieve the target’’.

However, a later report revealed the Cabinet strategy committee had discussed the obesity plan ‘‘and did not support an outcome target at this time’’.

The ministry said referring 95 per cent of obese children to a medical professional through its B4 School Checks programme ‘‘could be seen as having only a limited impact on the problem of childhood obesity’’, as it had a narrow focus compared to an outcome target.

Labour’s acting health spokesman, David Clark, said the report was proof that the Government had watered down its obesity plan.

‘‘This is a recommendation from their own best advisers on the topic, and they have chosen instead to have a policy that is more friendly towards large corporate interests.’’

Clark said the referral programme in the obesity plan did not come with any guarantee that the children would be tracked to see whether they lost weight.

‘‘It makes no sense to do more of the same when it clearly isn’t working. A more serious signal is required, and having a target to which they can be held accountable seems the logical next step if you’re serious about tackling childhood obesity.’’

The decision not to set a target showed the Government had ‘‘lost ambition’’ and was afraid to be seen falling short, Clark said.

Auckland University nutrition and health professor Boyd Swinburn said the referral target which the Government had settled on was ‘‘one of the weaker ones out of the mix which could have been there’’.

‘‘It’s not very ambitious – it’s like the whole plan, it’s quite timid.’’

Swinburn said the Government had ‘‘cherry-picked a handful of soft options or things that they’re doing anyway’’, rather than taking expert advice on the issue.

‘‘There’s any number of expert groups and evidence reports that the Government could draw on, and this report . . . is just one of them.

‘‘So I think it is a pattern of rather ignoring the evidence and the experts and going for what would [cause] the least resistance for industry, or what would sit with their ideologies.’’

Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said it was ‘‘incorrect’’ to say that officials’ advice was ignored when setting the final target.

Coleman said ‘‘a lot of thought and discussion’’ went into the target, which was developed in conjunction with officials and based on their advice.

New Zealand was now one of the few countries in the world with a target and ‘‘comprehensive package of initiatives’’ to tackle childhood obesity, he said.