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NINTENDO-ISATION TO BLAME FOR OBESITY AND DIABETES INCREASE
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"Nintendo-isation" is playing a major part in worldwide increases in
both obesity and type 2 diabetes in children, according to a speaker at the Australian Medical Writers Association annual conference held at the end of last year.
Professor Paul Zimmet, director of the International Diabetes Institute and professor of diabetes at Monash University in Melbourne, told the conference that Australia has seen a four-fold increase in diabetes since 1980.
The major impact of television and computer games is not the behaviour it produces but that which it prevents, he said.
A national study of diabetes in Australia, AusDiab, which studied prevalence between 1981 and 2000, found that type 2 is now being seen in young children.
And a study of Torres Strait Islander children in the northern tip of Australia found children as young as six had type 2 diabetes.
"In 10 years, there will be much more type 2 diabetes in children than there will be type 1," Professor Zimmet predicted.
Type 2 is already more prevalent in Pacific Island communities, he said.
Largely because of our genes, there is a very strong susceptibility to obesity as there is to diabetes.
There may be a number of genes involved, Professor Zimmet said.
"From studies of the desert sand rat, we have found several new genes which predispose to obesity and diabetes."
In Australia, 2,7000,000 adults are obese and a further 4,200,000 are overweight.
A 1997 Victorian study showed that one in five Victorian children is overweight or obese.
The annual USA cost of healthcare and wages lost to obesity-related diseases is estimated at more than $US117 billion.
It is likely to cost Australia over $A10 billion in direct and indirect costs.
There is a very large government responsibility to tackle the problem by creating an environment where children can exercise regularly and eat sensibly, Professor Zimmet said.
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