February 17, 2006 – The Association pour la santé publique du Québec (APSQ) launched a real cry of alarm1, with the publication of the report Weight-related problems in Quebec – a call to action2.
Like Americans and other Canadians, Quebeckers are getting bigger and bigger. And children are no exception: one in five is overweight. The APSQ maintains that obesity is on the way to becoming the XXI public health probleme century. “This situation is serious, and its consequences will mortgage the future of our society, in particular because of the health costs which they will generate”, it is written in this report.
The Provincial Working Group on the Problem of Weight (GTPPP), created by the APSQ in 2000, has looked into the issue over the past five years and now has five recommendations:
- Offer a healthy and varied diet to children and adolescents in daycare and school settings.
- Review city planning to encourage travel on foot or by bicycle rather than by car.
- Revise the regulations on advertising aimed at children.
- Better regulate the products, services and means that offer consumers to lose weight3.
- Promote funding and an interdisciplinary approach to research on weight-related problems.
|
Eat too much |
We can therefore see that the APSQ and the GTPPP ask society’s actors to create an environment – physical, cultural and social – which will promote a direct modification of the living conditions which are the very basis of certain behaviors leading to overweight. and obesity. From government to childcare, from the research community to the agri-food sector, the Association believes that everyone has a role to play in countering obesity.
“The success of such a plan for the prevention of weight-related problems depends on the presence of a certain number of conditions which act simultaneously”, one can read in the fifty-page report.
Collective or individual problem?
Such a comprehensive approach contrasts with the results of a survey conducted last year by the APSQ and the GTPPP. While 91% of respondents said they believe obesity is a “fairly important” or “very important” problem, 58% of those surveyed also said that they believe obesity is primarily an individual problem.
This means that if people are made aware of the importance of a healthy weight, they believe that those who suffer from obesity have only themselves to blame.
|
Move more? |
This ambiguous attitude is also reflected in the popularity of certain measures proposed to combat obesity. Less coercive measures are supported by over 90% of respondents. Examples? Set up programs to promote physical activity and healthy eating habits, offer healthy foods in shopping centers, implement measures to facilitate work-family balance or even make the stairs in buildings more accessible.
But when the proposed measures go hand in hand with a tax increase of around $ 50, survey respondents are less enthusiastic. Thus, creating lanes reserved for bicycles (64%), subsidizing more nutritious meals in schools (63%) or creating parks or other spaces for physical activity (61%) are less unanimous.
It is estimated that from 1985 to 1998, the number of Quebecers aged 15 and over suffering from overweight increased by 44%, reaching 13% of the population.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that some of the public health problems resulting from obesity – such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease – have contributed to 60% of the 57 million deaths worldwide. in 2001. Obesity is in the process of downgrading infectious diseases as a threat to the health of populations around the world.
Jean-Benoit Legault – PasseportSanté.net
1. The Association for Public Health of Quebec is an independent, multidisciplinary and non-profit group dedicated to the promotion, improvement and maintenance of the health of the Quebec population.
2. The full report Weight-Related Problems in Quebec – A Call to Action, is accessible on the site http://client.k3media.com. [consulté le 15 février 2006].
3. An APSQ study reveals that only 1% of the methods analyzed offer an approach combining diet, physical activity and behavior modification, which would be the healthiest way to lose weight.
4. Before unveiling this new report, the APSQ and the GTPPP published, in 2004, Weight-related problems in Quebec: a call for mobilization, from which these statistics are taken, p.4.
