Australian children will face an increasingly higher risk of cancer in adulthood unless more is done to reduce childhood overweight and obesity, according to The Cancer Council Australia.
Speaking on World Cancer Day, The Cancer Council’s Chief Executive Officer, Professor Ian Olver, warned that a more concerted effort was needed to combat obesity in order to minimise what would be an “inevitable growth” in the incidence of cancers and other chronic diseases.
“Today’s school children are being put at greater risk of contracting obesity related cancers and other diseases in later life and that has to be big concern for all parents,” Professor Olver said.
Launching the Australian component of a world-wide cancer prevention campaign, Today’s children, Tomorrow’s World, International Union Against Cancer President-elect, Professor David Hill*, said Australia needed to join other countries in combating obesity and other causes of cancer through a much greater investment in prevention programs.
The campaign is being run in more than 80 countries and focuses on tobacco use, unhealthy diet and obesity, infections and overexposure to damaging ultraviolet radiation from sunlight and solariums.
“Governments, businesses, community organisations, parents and carers need to act now to reduce the impact of cancer on children and future generations,” Professor Hill said. “Research shows that more than 40 per cent of the 88,000 cancers diagnosed each year in Australia can be prevented through healthier lifestyles established early in life. Limiting exposure to risk factors among children today will greatly reduce the long-term incidence and economic cost of cancer.”
According to Professor Olver, the economic cost of cancer to Australia was estimated to be almost $3 billion a year and rising. “As a nation there is a lot that can be done to reduce the devastating human and economic cost,” he said.
Professor Olver said there were simple steps all parents could take themselves and encourage their children to take to reduce their risk of cancer:
- Not use tobacco of any kind;
- Maintain a healthy diet and exercise regularly;
- Ensure children get vaccinations against cancer causing infections;
- and Limit over exposure to the sun and UV radiation.
“As a nation we are under-investing in cancer, a disease that Australians consistently rate as the one they most fear,” he said. “Cancer is responsible for around 28 per cent of deaths in Australia, but only accounts for a little over six per cent of the nation’s health budget.”
Cancer killed more than seven million people worldwide in 2006, more than AIDS, malaria, diabetes, tuberculosis, malnutrition, violence and war combined, according to the World Health Organization.
*Professor Hill is Chief Executive Officer of The Cancer Council Victoria
Media contact: Glen Turner, Communications Manager, The Cancer Council Australia
p. 02 9036 3100 m. 0412 443 212 e. glen.turner@cancer.org.au www.cancer.org.au
Obesity, overweight and cancer
Obesity is associated with increased risk of cancer of the colon, breast (post-menopause), endometrium, kidney and oesophagus.
Trends in obesity and overweight
Children
- Between 1985 and 1997 levels of overweight doubled and obesity trebled among Australian children aged between 7 and 15 years.(1)
- According to the last national survey in 1995 one in five Australian children was overweight or obese:
- Highest prevalence was among boys aged 15-17 years (24.1%)
- In children aged 7-15 years 4.7% of boys and 5.5% of girls were obese and a further 15.3% of boys and 16% of girls were overweight.(2)
- A 2004 NSW schools survey found the prevalence of overweight and obese students had increased to one in four (25%) in 2004, from 20% in 1997 and 11% in 1985. (2)
- Research in Victoria in 2003 involving 1001 primary school children aged 7-11 years reported that 26.7% were overweight or obese.3
Adults
- The AusDiab study estimated each day that there are 600 new cases of obesity in Australia and over the five year period of the study waistlines increased on average by 2.1cm and weight by 1.4kg. (4)
- A recent analysis of trend data from the Australian National Health Survey from 1989/90-2004/05 found that there has been significant increase in obesity and overweight over time (5):
- 1989/90 – 38.4%
- 1995 – 45.5%
- 2001 – 51.1%
- 2004/05 – 54.5%
Cancer in Australia (6)
- 1 in 3 men and 1 in 4 women will be directly affected by cancer before the age of 75.
- In Australia each year, more than 88,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed.
- Cancer is the leading cause of death in Australia – more than 36,000 people die from cancer each year.
Obesity and cancer
- 3% of cancer deaths in Australia are attributable to being overweight or obese.7
- Incidence of cancer attributable to being overweight or obese*:
- 11% of colon cancer cases
- 9% of post-menopausal breast cancer cases
- 39% of endometrial cancer cases
- 25% of renal cancer cases
- 37% of oesophageal adenocarcinoma cases
- 24% of gallbladder cancer cases8
*Data drawn from Boyle et al 2003 and based on Western Europe
References
1. Booth M, Chey T, Wake M, Norton K, Hesketh K, Dollman J, Robertson I. Trends in overweight and obesity among young Australians, 1969-1997. Am J Clin Nutr 2003;77:29-36.
2. Margarey AM, Daniels LA, & Boulton TJC. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in Australian children and adolescents: reassessment of 1985 and 1995 data against new standard international definitions. Med J Aust 2001;174:561-4.
3. Swinburn, B. & Bell, C. (2003) Results of a weight survey of primary school children in the Sentinel Site for Obesity Prevention, Victoria, Melbourne: Deakin University.
4. Barr ELM, Bagliano DJ, Zimmett P, Polkinghorne KR, Atkins RC, Dunstan DW, Murray SG, Shaw JE. AusDiab 2005 – The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study. International Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia 2006.
5. Atlantis E, Kirby A. Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity among Australian adults from 1989-90 to 2004-5. 10th International Congress on Obesity, Sydney Australia 3-8 September 2006 (accepted 8/08/2006).
6. Cancer in Australia 2001, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
7. Mathers C, Vos T, Stephenson C. The burden of disease and injury in Australia. 1999. Canberra, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
8. Boyle P et al. European Code Against Cancer and scientific justification: third version (2003). Ann.Oncol 2003; 14: 973-1005.