ANZOS 2013 abstracts e49

However, although respondents supportedgreater personal responsibility, they saw it as muchless effective in reducing obesity than severalenvironmental interventions: ‘Removing GST onfresh fruit and vegetables to reduce their price’,‘Making public facilities for physical activity freefor locals to use’, ‘Removing food high in fat orsugar from school tuck shops, workplace cafeteriasand vending machines, and hospitals’ and ‘Increas-ing the amount of sport and physical activity withinschool time’. Public education campaigns were alsoconsidered more effective than simply encouragingpeople to take responsibility for their own health,but less so than environmental interventions.

Clearly there is a difference between what mem-bers of the public say they support and what theythink will be effective. We argue it is the latterthat should influence policy makers. Although ourrespondents saw individuals as responsible for theirown body-weight, they recognised the difficulty oflosing weight in an environment that fosters weight-gain. Our findings suggest that the New Zealandpublic support and see as effective an integratedapproach that enables people to buy healthier food,decreases the availability of nutrient-poor foodsand provides opportunities for exercise, in additionto measures that teach them how to eat healthily.In this respect, public opinion is leading public pol-icy and the political will to address overweight andobesity.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orcp.2013.12.592

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Community perceptions regardingthe promotion of energy densesnack foods and soft drinks inAustralian supermarkets, andattitudes toward regulatory change

Adrian J. Cameron ∗, JenniferMcCann, Lukar E. Thornton

Deakin University, Burwood, Vic,Australia

Background and aim: The majority of Australiansfail to meet national guidelines for the consump-tion of energy dense snack foods. These foodsare heavily promoted in Australian supermarkets,which are the major source of food for the majorityof households. We examined shoppers’ perceptionsof the promotion of energy dense snack foods andsoft drinks in Australian supermarkets and exploredtheir attitudes toward various potential regulatoryoptions.

Methods: Responses were obtained from themain food shopper in 190 households from 4 clusters(2 in most disadvantaged areas, 2 in least disad-vantaged areas). Women represented 67% of thesample and 69% were born in Australia. Analyseswere conducted for the whole sample and by area-level disadvantage.

Results: The majority of participants frequentlyshopped at large supermarkets (92%) and reporteddoing the majority of their food shopping inthese stores (69%). Most people (77%) believedsupermarkets dedicate too much space to softdrinks and snack foods, and 86% would likesupermarket regulation of these products (35%preferring Government regulation; 51% prefer-ring self-regulation). Respondents supported eachof: (1) snack/soft-drink-free checkouts (mean(SE) of 4.9 (0.16) on a scale of 1—7 where1 = do not support and 7 = strongly support), (2)replacing snacks/soft-drinks at checkouts withfruit/vegetables (mean = 4.8 (0.16)), (3) limits onthe proportion of checkouts, end-of-aisle displaysand island bins that can display snacks/soft-drinks(mean 4.8—5.1), (4) regulation of shelf space dedi-cated to these products (mean = 4.7 (0.15)) and (5)regulation to keep children’s toys out of snack foodaisles (mean = 5.5 (0.14)). Variation in purchasingof snack foods by area-level socioeconomic positionwas observed.

Conclusion: A strong community desire forchange to supermarket practices relating to theavailability of soft drinks and energy-dense snackswas evident.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orcp.2013.12.593

95

Rapid weight gain and overweightand obesity in urban Aboriginalchildren: The Gudaga cohort

Elizabeth Denney-Wilson ∗, VanaWebster, Jenny Knight, ElizabethComino, Georgie Russell

UTS and COMPaRE-PHC, Sydney,NSW, Australia

Background: Preventing obesity in children,especially those from Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander backgrounds is a national priority. Recentnational data suggests higher rates of over-weight/obesity among Indigenous pre-schoolers(28.1%) than non-Indigenous pre-schoolers (20.5%)(1). Previous studies also suggest Indigenous chil-dren residing in urban areas tend to be heavier andtaller than those residing in rural/remote areas.

e50 Abstracts

Two regional studies, based in the Northern Terri-tory, found both high proportions of underweightand overweight children in urban areas (2,3).

Methods: The Gudaga Study is a longitudinalbirth cohort of 159 Australian Aboriginal childrenborn on the urban fringe of Sydney. Birthweightand length were extracted from hospital data. Chil-dren with a birthweight > 1500 g were included inthe analysis (n = 157). Weight, length, and head cir-cumference were measured at 2—3 weeks and thensix monthly until 24 months of age. Age and gen-der specific standard deviation (SD) scores weredetermined from the CDC 2000 growth charts forweight, length, head circumference and body massindex (BMI). The proportion of children experienc-ing RWG (an increase of ≥0.67 SD weight-for-age infirst year) was calculated. The association betweenRWG and ≥85th CDC percentile for BMI at 24 monthswas tested using Pearson’s Chi Square.

Results: Gudaga infants were lighter than CDCstandards at birth and 2—3 weeks of age, butheavier than CDC standards by 18 and 24 monthsof age. Overall, 42 infants (34.4%) experienced RWGand 45 infants (36.9%) were overweight/obese at 24months of age. Infants who experienced RWG in thefirst year of life (n = 26, 61.9%) were significantlymore likely to be overweight or obese at 24 monthscompared with those who did not experience RWG(n = 19, 23.8%) (�2

1 = 17.2, p < 0.001).Conclusion: Our study suggests a concerning pro-

portion of urban Aboriginal infants experience RWGand overweight/obesity in early childhood.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orcp.2013.12.594

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The use of food labelling bydisadvantaged parents ofoverweight children

Simone Pettigrew ∗, Melanie Pescud

University of Western Australia,Crawley, WA, Australia

Improved food labelling, especially front-of-packlabelling, is often proposed as a means of facili-tating better food choices among consumers withlower levels of food literacy. This population seg-ment is of particular interest given the higher ratesof overweight and obesity among disadvantagedconsumers and the higher prevalence of associ-ated health problems. A longitudinal, qualitativestudy involving low socioeconomic status familieswith overweight children identified several issuesrelating to food labelling that have implicationsfor obesity-related policy and practice. The study

participants engaged in interviews, focus groups,and self-introspections over the course of the study.

The findings indicate that despite concerns abouttheir children’s health in general, many of thestudy participants did not fully acknowledge theirchildren’s weight status and as a result did notactively attempt to use food labels to assist themto make better food choices for their children.The few parents who reported regularly using foodlabels had either attended a parenting trainingprogram (such as the Triple P Parenting Program)or a weight loss program (such as Weight Watch-ers), and/or had concerns about food additives andhence closely examined the ingredients list beforeselecting food products for their children. The par-ents often reported using marketing messages onthe front of packs (e.g., ‘high in calcium’) to assistthem in their decision making. As such, they appearhighly vulnerable to one-sided promotional mes-sages that highlight only the positive attributes ofthe product.

The findings suggest that accurate front-of-packfood labels that provide at-a-glance and easy-to-understand information about the healthiness offood products would be highly useful and benefi-cial to lower socioeconomic status consumers. Theimplications of these results for the forthcomingvoluntary front-of-pack food labelling system willbe discussed.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orcp.2013.12.595