The data, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, show that overall, 54% of Australians are either overweight or obese.
At the same time, the NHS showed that people who are overweight or obese are increasingly likely to see themselves as having an acceptable weight – 44% in 2004-05, compared with 37% in 1995.
The mining industry came off worst in the NHS, with 76% of its people falling into the overweight or obese category. Production and transport is the occupation with the highest proportion of overweight or obese workers, at 63%.
These results could be due to a number of factors; for example, the mining industry is still largely a male-dominated industry, with a higher percentage of overweight or obese males (62%) than females (45%).
Results from the survey also showed that the likelihood of being overweight or obese rose with the number of hours a person worked each week, and that this was particularly true for men.
The proportion of overweight or obese men working 25 hours or less a week was 48%, rising to 70% for men working more than 49 hours weekly.
It showed that as the hours worked increased, the level of sedentary or low physical activity also increased.
While the high level of overweight and obesity in the industry is worrying in itself, the statistics also showed that people who fell in this category were more likely to suffer from potentially serious health problems than people who are underweight or of normal weight.
Of the overweight or obese people included in the NHS:
- 28% suffered from a disease of the circulatory system, including heart disease, stroke and vascular disease, compared to 18% of normal or underweight people;
- 20% had heart disease, while just 10% of normal weight and 8% underweight people reported having the disease;
- 16% of overweight and 20% of obese people had high blood pressure, which is a risk factor in other diseases such as coronary heart disease and stroke. Of the underweight and normal weight people, 9% and 7% respectively had high blood pressure; and
- 3.8% of overweight and 9% of obese people suffered from type 2 diabetes, compared with 2.2% of people in the normal weight category.
