50pct of overweight Oz population wrongly believe they are healthy
September 15th, 2009 - 5:32 pm ICT by ANISydney, September 15 (ANI): A survey in Australia has revealed that more than 50 per cent of overweight people believe that they are healthy.
The Heart Foundation, which commissioned the survey, said that the tendency to judge oneself against other people, instead of scientifically based weight guidelines, was ‘normalising’ obesity.
A report on the survey 1200 people reveals that 25 per cent of the people, considered obese using the body mass index (BMI), rated their health as being very good or excellent, and that 20 per cent believed that their risk of getting heart disease was low to very low.
Lyn Roberts, the chief executive of the Heart Foundation, said that despite years of public health messages, there was still an alarming lack of awareness about the cardiovascular risks of being overweight or obese.
‘As our waistlines expand, it appears that our perception of what is a healthy weight has also expanded, so many people who are overweight or obese do not actually see themselves in this way,’ the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Dr. Roberts as saying.
The survey found misconceptions about the ideal weight range, based on a BMI of 20-24.9, increased alongside an overall weight gain among the participants in the 12 months since the previous survey.
Using self-reported height and weight, 54 per cent of participants were overweight or obese, up from 50 per cent in 2008.
One in six, with a BMI of 30 or more, believed that their weight met health guidelines, compared to one in nine last year.
The proportion of those overweight-people having a BMI between 25 and 29-who thought they were in the healthy range also increased, from 51 to 57 per cent in 12 months.
The survey, which was jointly funded by the life insurance company Zurich, found almost half of obese Australians had made no changes to their behaviour to reduce their risk of heart disease, such as quitting smoking, exercising and eating more fruit and vegetables.
One in four obese people smoked, with most smoking daily, a proportion 70 per cent higher than people of ideal weight range. (ANI)
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