Year: 2010
Type: letter
Abstract: 11 November 2009 Dear Editor, AUDIT OF AUSTRALIAN CHILDHOOD OBESITY RESEARCH FUNDING 2005–2009 Obesity is an Australian National Health Priority Area1 and a major health issue in the 2007–2009 National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Strategic Plan.2 Given its critical implications and genesis early in the lifecourse, childhood obesity is poised to become one of our biggest public health problems; it may substantially shorten life expectancy by 2050. Therefore, the Australasian Childhood and Adolescent Obesity Research Network (ACAORN),3 a collaborative group of researchers, is concerned about a marked paucity of research funding. In January 2009, we investigated recent funds allocated by major medical research funding bodies to obesity in children. We reviewed websites from the NHMRC, Australian Research Council, Diabetes Australia Research Trust and National Heart Foundation (NHF) to identify outcomes of funding rounds since 2005. We searched project titles and summaries for the following key words: child, adolescent, child health, paediatric, overweight, obesity, healthy weight, weight, physical activity, sedentary behaviour, exercise, activity, food, or nutrition. We also reviewed the NHMRC online obesity research funding statistics. Because the NHF had publicly available only the latest funding round results (2009), we contacted them to get information about previous funding rounds (2005–2008). A limitation of our approach is that fellowship, scholarship and travel grants were not included. Table 1 shows that 44 Australian research projects at least partially tackling childhood obesity were funded ($∼21 million). The largest funding allocation in this area of research is via NHMRC project grants. However, of the total 2809 project grants funded since 2005, just 0.5% (almost $7 million) were directed towards childhood obesity, with grants if anything falling over the last 2 years to just two funded projects in 2009 Although the NHMRC's December 2008 statement indicated that 33 (total $18 040 675) of 688 (total $355 872 646) project grants funded for 2009 were related to obesity, only two projects were directed towards obesity research in children ($1 283 275).4 The table also shows that marginally more grants were funded through other rounds, particularly Strategic and Primary Care grants which explicitly solicit priority research. The largest tranche ($5.5 million) was awarded to four relevant Capacity Building Grants, though only one concentrates wholly or largely on childhood obesity. It is disappointing to see this level of under-resourcing. ACAORN is pleased to see the NHMRC's announcement that ‘Obesity Intervention’ is a research priority for grants submitted in 2009.5 While this reflects the gravity of the epidemic, more needs to be done. ACAORN therefore calls on the NHMRC and all major health research funding bodies to consider: Allocating more funds targeted specifically to childhood obesity research Developing a national childhood obesity research strategic agenda Supporting a national childhood obesity research infrastructure
Authors: Louise A Baur, Melissa Wake, Paola T Espinel
Institutions: The University of Sydney, Royal Children's Hospital
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2468143464