New Zealand At Risk Of Diabetes Crisis, Health Experts Warn

Fri, 12 Aug 2011

Health professionals in New Zealand are warning of an impending diabetes crisis following funding cuts to health programmes.

In an open letter to the New Zealand Medical Journal, 12 medical specialists, public health workers and nutritionists criticized the government for not taking preventive measures to combat the country’s rapidly increasing diabetes rates.

They also hit out at the government’s decision to scrap the healthy eating and obesity prevention programmes, given the fact that obesity is one of the precursors of diabetes .

Louise Signal, public health researcher at the University of Otago, said: "Obesity accounts for more than 80 per cent of preventable diabetes in New Zealand and is not being vigorously addressed, in fact many preventive programmes have been cut."

"We have alarmingly high rates of diabetes, they're getting worse, and we compare very poorly with other OECD (Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation) countries, according to the June edition of the British journal the Lancet."

"Health professionals have been warning about this incipient health crisis for years."

She added that 63 per cent of adults were either overweight or obese and that weight-related problems, such as diabetes and diabetes-related kidney failure, currently take up two to seven per cent of the country’s health budget.

The open letter recommended nine "urgent preventive actions", including the introduction of "traffic light" nutritional labelling, the promotion of exercise, and a ban on unhealthy junk food in schools.

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