Technical Paper 1:
Obesity in Australia: a need for urgent action
2.5 - Middle-aged and older Australians
Another major contributor to the rise in mean BMI in Australia has been that the heaviest groups within the population have put on disproportionately more weight (around 7 BMI units) than lighter groups.[149] This suggests the need for specific targeting of those already at higher levels of BMI. These are predominantly people in middle age. There has been a steady and substantial increase in the number of older Australians who are obese, from 310,000 in 1980 to 940,000 in 2000.[9] This represents an increase from 11% to 23% of older Australians who are obese. About one-third of the increase in number has been as a result of the ageing of the population and two-thirds as a result of the increased obesity rates.
Older Australians are about 6–7kg heavier on average than their counterparts were 20 years ago. Australians in their 50s and 60s are now also gaining weight as they gain years, at least into their mid-70s. The number of older Australians aged 55 years or older is increasing, as is their representation in the total population. Their number is projected to increase from 4.2 million in 2001 to 7.2 million in 2021, which is an increase from 22% to 31% of the population. The combined trend of population ageing and the obesity epidemic is likely to result in continuing increases in the number of older, obese Australians.[149]
Many of the middle-aged overweight and obese population already have co-morbidities. In the National Health Surveys, the proportion of those reporting no long-term conditions is consistently significantly lower for obese people of both sexes. Among adults aged 20 years and over, obese men were more likely than healthy weight men to have five or more long-term conditions in 2001 (26.1% compared with 19%). Similarly, proportionately more obese women reported five or more long-term conditions than women of healthy weight (36.6% compared with 23.1%). The results for overweight but not obese men and women were similar to the results for obesity, although the differences from those of healthy weight were not as marked.[150]