Overweight and obesity prevalence in children based on 6- or 12- month IOTF cut-points: does interval size matter?

The International Obesity Taskforce (IOTF) recommends using age- and gender-specific body mass index (BMI) cut-points for defining the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children. These are given in both 6- and 12-month age intervals. Since the BMI-for-age curves are nonlinear, a degree of bias will be introduced when age intervals are wide. We aimed to quantify this bias in prevalence estimates in 2178 Australian children aged 4-12 years using 12- versus 6-month age intervals. Using the 12-month interval, the prevalence of overweight and obesity was underestimated by 1.4% compared to the 6-month interval estimates; however, this was age-dependent. It overestimated prevalence for 4-year olds, but underestimated it for older ages by up to 2.6%. Overweight prevalence was generally affected more than obesity prevalence. The use of different age intervals for IOTF cut-points introduces a small but systematic bias in prevalence estimates of overweight and obesity.

Correct weight? analysing Australian football through a derivative global or cultural cringe model

The application of a 'global' model, in practice usually British or American, and generalised sociological concepts to a particular sport and its social and cultural context is not always appropriate. In Australian academia, the custom is particularly appealing, due to the Australian colonial 'cultural cringe', the pattern of automatic deference to overseas (termed 'international') knowledge. This article argues that 'Fresh Prince of Coloma! Dome: Indigenous Logic in the AFL' (Football Studies, 8(1), 2005) inappropriately applies American sociological, and American football, logic to the indigenous Australian game Australian football, which differs in character both as a game and in its social, cultural and political context. The three researchers do not take account of the factors of height and weight in Australian football, and the average size of Aboriginal players, and of the relationship between speed and strength in the game as strategies and tactics change. Both omissions constitute fundamental flaws. American football and sports sociology's ideas of 'central position theory', with a suggestion of underlying racism, is of limited relevance to Australian football. It is also possible that the American sitcom, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, was neither a helpful muse nor a suitable metaphor for research into this subj ect. In Australian football, a game in which few 'central positions' are crucial and in which 'leadership positions' can be found in many parts of the ground, including the half-back flank and the wing, neither size nor position are the only major determinants of significance in the team.

From policy to practice: the development of an integrated health promotion plan for children's services at Plenty Valley Community Health Inc.

Current changes in the funding of health promotion in community health in Victoria require community health agencies to integrate health promotion with service delivery. This provides both opportunities and challenges for community health staff. Members of the Children’s Service Team at Plenty Valley Community Health Inc. addressed these changes by developing an integrated health promotion plan. The approach used involved identifying client pathways and then integrating opportunities for health promotion interventions into these pathways. Staff perceptions of the process involved in developing the plan were examined. The use of client pathways to integrate health promotion into everyday practice proved a successful approach for members of the Children’s Services Team, and provides a useful model for health promotion planning in community health that helps staff to see the relevance of health promotion to their practice, and engages staff in the planning process. Members of the Children’s Services Team reported that the process involved in developing their integrated health promotion plan was a very worthwhile experience that allowed them a strong sense of ownership of the plan.

A preliminary investigation of the relationship between parental empathy and social anxiety and children's social anxiety

This study investigated the association between parents' social anxiety and empathy, and their children's social anxiety, Twenty-one mothers, 12 fathers and 24 children aged between 7 and 12 years were recruited from state primary schools in the eastern metropolitan region of Melbourne, Australia. Parents completed self-report questionnaires assessing their parental empathy and level of social anxiety. Children completed a modified version of the social anxiety questionnaire. All parent variables, except for maternal anxiety, were related to children's social anxiety. Overall, parental empathy was found to have a considerable association with child social anxiety, which is consistent with arguments that micro-level family mechanisms are important influences on child social anxiety. Future studies of parental empathy with clinical populations and data collection from multiple sources are recommended.

A longitudinal study of children's disordered eating and muscle preoccupation

Recent research has demonstrated high levels of dieting, food preoccupation and muscle preoccupation in preadolescent children. In children, these attitudes and behaviours can constitute health risks. The design of appropriate intervention programs relies on empirical identification of the relevant risk factors. The current study was designed to investigate low self-esteem, perceived parental relations, perceived peer relations, negative affect, perfectionism and BMI as predictors of dieting, food preoccupation and muscle preoccupation in 8 to 10 year old children, over a 10 month period. The results demonstrate the importance of perfectionism as a predictor of dieting and muscle preoccupation in preadolescent boys.

Mapping the Australian archaic: reflections on black medea

Wesley Enoch’s Black Medea is explicit about what is, and what is not, its project: the chorus implores the audience not to read the narrative of its infanticidal heroine as one that demonises black women. Instead, the play affirms that its narrative can be understood differently and in a way that has a wider social significance. Taking my cue from the claim that the story is somehow ‘about everyone,’ I would like to begin unravelling the play’s relevance to contemporary contentions of Australian and indeed ‘Unaustralian’ subjectivity, particularly in relation to the discourses that seek to construct ‘Australian’ identity through an appeal to antiquity and what I describe as ‘the archaic.’ It seems to me that Black Medea presents an opportunity for thinking about the ways in which the discourses of aboriginal and classical antiquity operate to inform contemporary, contesting definitions of Australian identity. Regardless of whether these discourses of antiquity are claimed as ‘Australian’ or abjected as Other or ‘Unaustralian’ – and they have been used in both ways – they remain, I argue, formative to current conceptions of Australian identity and are positioned in the economy of discourses that comprise that arena. As will be seen, the mixed reception or ambivalence with which these complementary discourses of antiquity are treated in Australian culture gives Black Medea the potential to be situated among them in subversive and questioning ways, and in ways that may highlight the reasons for their ambivalent status.

Applications of cognitive theories to children's fire safety education

Children under five have the highest rate of fire-related accidents (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2001). It is therefore essential to develop effective fire safety education programs to prevent casualties due to a fire. At present, there are fire education programs conducted across Australia for primary school children. However, it is vital that these programs get their message across to the children in the most efficient manner to help children retain the information. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of the 'Fire Ed' program conducted in Victoria and assessed the retention of fire safety information in children in preparatory and Grade five levels. The findings suggest that the information is not retained over long periods of time. Suggestions are made to provide fire safety education in line with
theories of cognitive development to make it more effective.

Change in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among young Australian, 1969-1997

BACKGROUND: Effective public policy requires information on the prevalence of overweight and obesity. OBJECTIVE: We determined changes in the population prevalence of overweight and obesity among young Australians (aged 7-15 y) from 1969 to 1985 to 1997. DESIGN: Data from 5 independent population surveys were analyzed: the Australian Youth Fitness Survey, 1969; the Australian Health and Fitness Survey, 1985; the South Australian Schools Fitness and Physical Activity Survey, 1997; the New South Wales Schools Fitness and Physical Activity Survey, 1997; and the Health of Young Victorians Study, 1997. Measured body mass index was used as the index of adiposity, and recently published body mass index cutoff values were used to categorize each subject as nonoverweight, overweight, obese, or either overweight or obese. RESULTS: For 1985-1997, the population prevalence of overweight increased by 60-70%, obesity increased 2-4-fold, and the combined overweight and obesity categories doubled. The findings were consistent across data sets and between the sexes. For 1969-1985, there was no change in the prevalence of overweight or obesity among girls, but among boys the prevalence of overweight increased by 35%, the prevalence of obesity trebled, and the prevalence of overweight and obesity combined increased by 60%. CONCLUSIONS: The data show that in 1985-1997, the prevalence of overweight and obesity combined doubled and that of obesity trebled among young Australians, but the increase over the previous 16 y was far smaller. These results should increase our sense of urgency in identifying and implementing effective responses to this major threat to public health.

Towards ending the silence: working women as carers of children with chronic illness/disability

This research presents stories from Australian women who work and care for a child with a significant chronic illness or disability. The paper considers the theory of Silencing the Self (Jack, 1991) in relation to the reported experiences and behaviours of these women. We report three themes of Caring and Working: "Otherness", "Doing it All" - but "Wanting to Live a Normal Life". As in Jack's study, these women engaged in silencing of the self. However, we also observed other people contributing to their silence and, unlike the respondents in Jack's study, many of these women fought the silence and did not accept that their unhappy situations should continue. They sought a life where silencing may not have been necessary.