Research pick: Island life and obesity - "Childhood obesity, food insecurity and climate change: a tale of two island groups"

Obesity represents a public health problem across the globe with an ever-increasing prevalence despite educational and other strategies being in place to address the issue. The consequences for long-term health crises remain. For children in two small island groups – Malta and the Canary Islands – there is growing concern regarding the incidence of overweight and obesity.

Writing in the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health, a team from Malta and The Canary Islands have looked at the issues and offer some suggestions for addressing them.

Childhood obesity rates in these two regions have reached distressing levels, with two out of every five children being classed as overweight or obese. The team reports that a move away from a Mediterranean diet towards unhealthy eating habits and sedentary lifestyles as well as factors such as a reliance on imported food and the potential effects of climate change are all contributing to this growing problem. The researchers point out that there are strategies in place but there is little surveillance of how effective they are.

There is an urgent need for much more targeted and effective solutions as well as monitoring of the effects in these two regions, especially given their relative isolation and limited availability of local, fresh produce. Any strategies that are put in place must take a medium and longer-term view rather than offering quick fixes that may not persist. It will also be critical to ensure that new approaches to tackling childhood obesity are equitable and do not widen any existing socio-economic gaps or create new social divisions that simply worsen the situation.

Fundamentally, these island regions have many problems that are not necessarily apparent in mainland regions. To address childhood obesity in these places, public health proposals must focus on the underlying issues and find ways to address them as well as to monitor the impact so that policies can be fine-tuned for greater benefit to those affected.

Calleja, P., Darias-Curvo, S., Copperstone, C. and Cauchi, D. (2023) ‘Childhood obesity, food insecurity and climate change: a tale of two island groups’, Int. J. Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp.167–184.