Going large: the fight against obesity: in 2008, one in every five children in Switzerland was overweight. That's five times more than in 1988. Federal and cantonal governments, and public and private sectors alike are now rallying around one word--prevention--in an attempt to arrest the disturbing trend.

AuteurMangold-Vine, Gail
Fonction NEWS FEATURE

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"The number of overweight and obese people has increased massively in the last few years, and the tendency is more and more prevalent in children." So says the introduction of a plan to halt this trend in its tracks, which was approved by the Swiss Federal Council on June 18. 2008.

Called the National Programme Nutrition and Physical Activity 2008-2012, the plan is based on the World Health Organization's Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health (2004) and the European Charter on Counterbalancing Obesity (2006).

We asked Dr. Nathalie Farpour-Lambert, president of the Obesity Care Program at Geneva University Hospital, to characterise obesity.

"Obesity is defined by an excess of of body fat. The Body Mass Index or BMI which is based on height and weight, is a reliable indicator of body fatness. [However], with children and teens, we don't plot the readings we get the same way as we do for adults," she explains.

"[Child] obesity is defined as a BMI above the 97th percentile. A child with a BMI above the 90th percentile is considered overweight," Farpour-Lambert says.

Fat children have heightened vulnerability to Type 2 Diabetes, cardiovascular problems, hypertension, and many other conditions that--even if they do not emerge in childhood--will trouble them later, and shorten their life expectancies.

Some of the reasons for the rise in overweight and obese people in Switzerland, cited by the new National Programme Nutrition and Physical Activity plan, are that consumption of fruit and vegetables is too low, and sugar intake is way too high.

The text continues to say that "31 per cent of the population pays no attention to good nutrition; 64 per cent gets too little exercise, and 19 per cent none at all". It also notes that the overweight and obesity problem "across the population in Switzerland is comparable to that of other European countries".

Practising prevention

The plan focuses not on children who are already overweight or obese, but on prevention--ensuring that awareness of good nutrition and the importance of exercise become so anchored in popular perception that they engender fundamental and lasting lifestyle habits, so that the problem ceases to constitute a threat to public health.

Elisabeth Fry, press spokesperson for Health Promotion Switzerland (a foundation working on behalf of the government to initiate, coordinate and evaluate public health policies), told Swiss News that the main players charged with putting the plan into practice are the Federal Office of Public Health, the Federal Office for Sport, and the offices of public health in the 26 cantons and half-cantons. Bern-based Health Promotion Switzerland plays a coordinating role.

"Because of the degree of autonomy the cantons possess under our system of government, things cannot be centralised," Fry notes. "However, we're working with the cantons to initiate their own nutrition and activity plans targeting the 0-20 age group, and we also offer some financial support."

She says 19 cantons are already fully on board to implement prevention plans, and the others are expected to follow suit shortly.

These cantonal plans, says Fry, must include a policy component geared to optimising good nutrition and regular exercise, the framework for goals to be achieved, and specific projects aimed at improving fitness levels and nutrition. An example of such a project is building "proper roads to sports centres, well marked and well lit, so kids can get to such centres easily and safely" in cases where such do not already exist, she illustrates.

"The idea is that the infrastructure must be in place to give people every opportunity to incorporate proper nutrition and exercise into their lives."

And, projects will also include "fun learning approaches for children and consciousness-raising for teachers, parents and even parents-to-be," Fry adds.

Other requirements of the cantonal plans include linking various players from both private and public sectors into a network. Good communication is a...

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