SAHR 2007 - Health Systems Trust

Health and Related Indicators 15
Nutrition
Globally, obesity is considered to be a major health
problem. Data from a survey of South African school children
aged between 6 and 13 years, selected from 5 provinces
during the Health of the Nation Survey (2001-2004) were
published in 2006 [SAMJ 96(439-44)]. The study showed that
“[o]n average, South African children showed very similar
overweight and obesity values to children from the USA
between 1976 and 1980, with South African boys slightly
below reported USA values and South African girls slightly
above”. White children were, however, “within less than 3% of
all of the USA values for the 1988-1994 sample”. The authors
concluded that “South African children in this sample show
Health Status – Nutrition
relatively high levels of overweight and obesity, similar to the
international patterns in developed countries of a decade
ago”. Increased urbanisation would be expected to exacerbate
this problem in coming years.
Some indication of the possible impact of poor nutrition
on adult health can be gathered from the StatsSA Adult
Mortality report. Overall, death rates from non-communicable
diseases increased between 1997 and 2004 (Figure
17). The report also showed that, for both males and females,
death rates from diabetes and obesity have increased over
time in every age group above 25 (Figure 18).
Figure 17: Death rates by age and sex per 100 000 population from non-communicable diseases, 1997 and 2004
3 000
2 500
Deaths per 100 000
2 000
1 500
1 000
500
0
15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64
Male 1997 Male 2004 Female 1997
Female 2004
Source:
StatsSA Adult mortality.
Figure 18: Death rates by age and sex per 100 000 from diabetes and obesity, 1997 and 2004
350
300
Deaths per 100 000
250
200
150
100
50
0
15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64
Male 1997 Male 2004 Female 1997
Female 2004
Source:
StatsSA Adult mortality.
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