Raising Healthy Kids health target starts from 1st July

New Zealand Health Minister Jonathan Coleman has welcomed the introduction of the new Raising Healthy Kids health target to help reduce childhood obesity.

The new health target is one of 22 initiatives in the Childhood Obesity Plan launched by the Government in October last year in response to rising rates of childhood obesity.

The new Raising Healthy Kids health target will ensure four year olds identified as obese while getting their B4 School Check will be offered a referral to the services they and their family need to support healthy eating and activity.

Dr Coleman explains “obesity is a serious issue threatening the health of young New Zealanders.

“In 2014/15 11% of all children aged two to 14 years were obese. The figures for Maori and Pacific children are 15% and 30% respectively,” says Dr Coleman.

“Over 58,600 children have benefited from the free B4 School Check in the last year. Of that, over 1,400 were referred on for support with healthy eating and activity.

“Under the new target by December 2017 we expect that over 4,000 children a year - 95% of children identified as obese - being supported to achieve a healthy weight.”

Dr Coleman today announced Professor Hayden McRobbie has been appointed as the Raising Healthy Kids Clinical Champion Childhood Obesity.

Professor McRobbie will work closely with the primary care sector and support the implementation of clinical pathways. He has over 16 years’ experience in behaviour change interventions.

New Zealand is one of the few countries in the OECD to have a target and a comprehensive plan to tackle childhood obesity.

Further information about the Plan and the new health target is available on the Ministry of Health website at www.health.govt.nz

Background
A core part of the Well Child Tamariki Ora service is for all children to have their weight and height measurements taken and recorded at regular intervals.

A BMI centile is calculated for children over two years of age according to the NZ–WHO Growth Charts and is used to monitor the weight status of the child. Body mass index above the 98th centile is very overweight (clinically obese).

The B4 School Check is a free health and development check for four year olds. The checks aim to identify and address any health, behavioural, social or development concerns which could affect a child’s ability to get the most benefit from school.

Under the new Raising Healthy Kids health target, where a child is identified as not being of optimum weight the health professional will offer the caregiver a referral for the child to a registered health professional in a primary care or community setting. A referral may also be offered to other services that may help, for example a family based nutrition, activity and lifestyle intervention.

The new health target replaces the heart and diabetes checks target which will continue to be monitored through other DHB accountability measures.

The new target will be reported quarterly as one of six national Health Targets.

Images used for illustrative purposes only

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