A worldwide study of children aged 5-19 years found that kids in New Zealand are gaining more weight, and becoming less healthy, than many other countries.

Researchers analysed data from 200 countries to track trends in height, weight and BMI from 1985 to 2019.

The results suggest Pacific Island kids had the highest BMI in the world in 2019, with New Zealand not far behind.

The authors say more investment is needed for school-aged kids and teenagers, such as free healthy school meals and better sports facilities.

Emeritus Professor Elaine Rush, Professor of Nutrition, Auckland University of Technology said “height, weight and BMI normally increase with age in school age children.”

“It is true that between 1985 and 2019, New Zealand has an unacceptably high and increasing prevalence of excess body weight and rapid growth in our children.”

“This is associated with poverty, food insecurity and is higher in Māori and Pacific children. A greater proportion of Māori and Pacific children live in areas of deprivation than European and Asian children. This is recorded in the annual reports of the New Zealand Health Survey.”

“What the analysis undertaken by the Non-Commmunicable Disease Risk Factor collaboration does not take into account is the increasing ethnic diversity of the New Zealand child population and how that has changed between 1985 and 2019. One size does not fit all.”

“The major ethnic groups are Māori 17%, Pacific 8%, European 70% and Asian 15%. This adds up to more than 100% because many identify with more than one ethnic group. European is an aging population, with 20% of both the European and Asian populations aged between five and 19 years, while Pacific and Māori each have 33% of their population between five and 19 years.”

“When comparing them at the same age, Pacific and Māori children weigh more than European and Asian for the same body mass index. However, Māori and Pacific children have less fat and more muscle than European and Asian children. Pacific and Māori children are taller and mature earlier than European children, but by age 19 there is little difference in height.”

“The authors, in the discussion, say that these measures differentiate countries in terms of how they shape determinants of lifelong health.

No measures of health, ethnic differences in shape and size, socioeconomic status or food security were assessed.

The highest prevalence of type 2 diabetes in New Zealand occurs in Pacific, Māori and Asian, not European. Yet Pacific and Asian are the two extremes of BMI, weight and height measures.

Body size and growth trajectories are imperfect measures of ‘nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks’ of Indigenous, multiethnic and migratory populations.