Prescription for a healthier Auckland

Auckland's Lightpath cycleway. More people are using cycling tracks, to the benefit of their health. Photo/ file.

Indicators which signal Auckland's collective health are flashing amber.

A new snapshot of the region's health status shows too many adults are overweight or obese, diets are short of fruit and vegetables, and too few of us walk or cycle to work, even though the percentage of Aucklanders catching the bus is slowly rising.

The picture for children shows just one bright spot - for the second year in a row there has been a decline in the rate of overweight or obese youngsters. In 2105, the rate was 20 per cent, down two points from 22 per cent.

But even then just 79 per cent of Auckland children aged 4 are normal weight. Obese children risk becoming obese adults, with all the health complications that involves such as diabetes, cancer, stroke and heart disease.

Checks of 4-year-olds show 15 per cent of Auckland preschoolers are overweight, and 6 per cent are obese. That in turn can cause the early onset of diseases not usually seen in childhood such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

Obesity is an aspect of Auckland's profile which shows marked ethnic disparities, with Maori children twice as likely to be obese or overweight as European or "other" children.

Pacific children are 3.17 times as likely to fall in this category. But there has been a slight closing of the gap with the proportion of Maori and Pacific children in the heaviest categories decreasing since 2012.

On other measures - tooth decay and physical activity - Auckland's children show either no improvement or are slipping behind.

The dental health of 5-year-olds has not improved in a decade. And once again the picture for Maori and Pacific children is worse than for European youngsters. Rates of tooth decay in 5-year-old Maori children in Auckland is 1.9 times higher than European boys and girls; Pacific children have rates 2.7 time higher.

The persistence of poor dental health indicates regular consumption of fizzy drinks, or sugar-sweetened beverages as health scientists call them. High added sugar consumption in turn feeds into chronic disease and obesity.

These figures come from a monitoring report on the state of Auckland's "obesogenicity" - how much the city's environment contributes to the obesity crisis.

Why is this important? Because obesity costs New Zealand an estimated $849 million or 0.3 per cent of GDP in healthcare and productivity costs.

The first Healthy Auckland Together Coalition report was compiled two years ago, and the latest tracks changes from that document.

Dr Michael Hale, a public health specialist and spokesman for the coalition, said the survey would be repeated next year to build a picture of whether the indicators were changing, and help design policies for a healthier city.

He said while a number of indicators showed room for improvement, the picture was not all bleak. The decline in childhood obesity rates indicated that tackling the crisis was not a "lost cause". Investments in public transport were paying dividends, with increasing per capita use of buses and trains.

Hale said the shifts were small but steady, and paid a physical dividend in that anyone using public transport had to walk to the station or bus stop.

In terms of "active transport" - cycling or walking to work - Auckland was still a long way behind cities like London or, closer to home, Wellington and even Gisborne. But this too was slowing changing for the better, said Hale, with the capital spending on cycle and walking projects likely to pay dividends with Aucklanders encouraged to make the most of civic improvements.

Turning round trends measuring the city's health would take time, Hale said. But places such as Melbourne, Copenhagen and even New York showed it was possible to create a more liveable city and improve the health status of citizens.

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