First of all, I'd like to thank the health committee for inviting me here to speak.
The Childhood Obesity Foundation of B.C. is a new charitable organization with a mission to identify, evaluate, and promote the best practices in the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity. We aim to be the leading provincial authority on issues related to childhood obesity in B.C. We promote a best practices approach to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity in Canada. We promote and collaborate on valuable research that will help, halt, or reverse the current trends of overweight and obesity at the local, provincial, and national levels.
What are the key actions that will help, halt, or reverse the trends about overweight? First, let's decrease the intake of sugar-sweetened beverages. We know that one of the major contributors to the childhood obesity epidemic is the over-consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. One can of soda per day increases a child's risk of obesity by 60%, and studies show that between 30% and 50% of Canadian teenagers drink at least one can of soda per day. It is difficult to exercise off the excess calories consumed in pop and juices. A 13-year-old boy needs to jog 50 minutes to burn off the 260 calories contained in each 591 millilitre bottle of pop.
Parents and children need to become educated on this important issue. This is a critical piece of social marketing that needs to be pervasive and sustained in order to counter the powerful marketing campaigns funded by the soft drink manufacturers. Here is a vital component of obesity prevention for which the federal government is ideally suited.
Second, decrease monitor time. The latest Canadian community health survey data indicates that children who spend more than two hours per day in front of a monitor--that's TV, computer screens, Game Boy--have double the incidence of overweight and obesity when compared to children who watch less than one hour per day. Monitor time displaces essential physical activity, and we know that more than half of five-year-olds to 17-year-olds are not reaching activity levels sufficient for optimal growth and development. In addition, children eat while watching TV and they eat what they see advertised. Therefore, the missed opportunity for exercise is compounded by overeating and the promotion of junk food and junk drinks.
It is recommended that children get no more than one hour to two hours of monitor time per day, that children do not have regular monitor time until two years of age, and that no child has a TV in their bedroom. Once more, this important message to parents is ideally suited for a social marketing campaign funded by a robust, sustainable source such as the federal government.
Third, institute comprehensive school health programs and policies that support them. School programs reach across all socio-economic status sectors and therefore are efficient at targeting vulnerable populations. Research evidence suggests that school-based interventions that adopt a comprehensive approach have the highest likelihood of achieving changes in health behaviours in childhood.
In Canada, the Annapolis Valley school program and Action Schools B.C. are examples of comprehensive school health programs that promote healthy weights. These programs address both physical activity and healthy eating, and address behaviours through policies and programs before and after school, in the classroom, in recess, and in partnerships with family and community. It's not just curriculum-based. The school community is involved in planning and implementing activities that are appropriate for their school.
Fourth, provide treatment for childhood obesity. The recent CIHR report entitled Addressing Childhood Obesity: The Evidence for Action, has stated:
Any treatment intervention is associated with significantly increased chance of improvement or resolution of obesity, and is favoured over no treatment.
Despite this endorsement, there are few obesity treatment centres in Canada. We know that a child who is obese when they enter into adulthood will likely die seven years earlier than their normal-weight peers. However, the younger intervention begins, the better chance of BMI dropping. For example, a boy of eleven who maintains his weight while growing will have effectively lowered his BMI. Family-based treatment for childhood obesity is effective and will likely have beneficial effects on the BMIs of caregivers and siblings, so there's a collateral effect to this.
The latest Canadian community health survey indicates that over 7% of our nation's children could benefit from obesity treatment, yet there are only a handful of treatment centres across the country. The federal government can play a key role in helping to correct this dismal situation.
What are some of the provincial government's actions? In British Columbia we have a lot to celebrate at the moment. The provincial government has taken great strides to change the landscape of the incidence of childhood obesity in B.C. by investing in a number of programs through the B.C. government's award-winning ActNowBC initiative and its partners. These include Action Schools BC, the healthy eating plan, the B.C. fruit and vegetable snack program, voluntary guidelines for food and beverage sales in B.C. schools, the active communities initiative, the municipal recreation food environment audit, and Centre for Healthy Weights treatment centre.
What is the role of the federal government here? We commend the provincial and federal governments for their support of initiatives that will work to halt or reverse the trends of childhood overweight and obesity through their focus on prevention. These initiatives include the Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada, the Canadian strategy for cancer control, the Canadian diabetes strategy, and the newly announced cardiovascular disease strategy. However, we feel that the federal government can enhance the battle against childhood obesity through four key actions.
The first is increased support for research and evaluation for childhood obesity prevention and treatment initiatives. Provincial programs such as Action Schools! BC have benefited from CIHR funding, but as the program expands, there is an urgent need for ongoing evaluation to demonstrate implementation effectiveness. Our ability to take advantage of the natural experiments that are under way in many provinces is limited. For example, as more obesity treatment centres are created, there will be a need for a well-funded research and evaluation arm. The CIHR and its new RFA are very appropriate conduits for such funds, but the CIHR needs more federal support in order to expand its role.
In addition, the federal government can ensure that the current chronic disease strategies incorporate adequate funding for evaluation and that there is adequate support for surveillance initiatives such as the physical health measures survey.
The second key action is to provide the crucial social marketing campaign to enhance the public's interest in changing their own intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and reducing excess time in front of electronic media.This social marketing campaign would provide the essential complement to the planned ParticipAction campaign. In addition, the federal government could explore policy options to control food advertising targeting children, similar to those now in place in Quebec, where advertising of some products to children under 13 is prohibited.
Third, promote the expansion of childhood obesity treatment centres and of research as to their efficacy and cost-effectiveness. The Government of Canada can facilitate a meeting of representatives from each of the various provincial programs in order to enhance knowledge transfer. The government can also help by funding a comprehensive research package to identify the most effective and cost-effective intervention. The government could fund pilot clinics in the provinces to act as best-practice resources and to stimulate the provincial governments to fund additional programs.
Fourth, continue to support organizations that facilitate cross-province knowledge exchange and capacity-building efforts, such as the Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada.
In conclusion, we believe the federal government has a role to play in the prevention of childhood obesity. In the need to support and enhance provincial approaches, we need you to enhance evaluation and surveillance efforts to underpin provincial and local activities with a vibrant and well-planned social marketing campaign, and to support collaboration and knowledge exchange within and across provinces.
Thank you.