News and media releases

WHAT'S NEW

Evidence update: Obesity prevention across the life-course

PANORG has the lastest evidence report prepared for NSW Ministry of Health in order to guide the State Obesity Plan. The report can be viewed from the section of Evidence summaries of intervention research.

Healthy Workplace 10 step guide

Drawing upon best available evidence and health promotion principles, PANORG, Heart Foundation NSW and Cancer Council NSW have developed a resource for what we saw as a gap in the market – a practical guide to assist small to medium sized businesses (2-200 employees) implement sustainable cost-effective workplace health programs. The resource has been designed as a 10 step process, and offers suggestions for practical activities. The centrefold of the resource provides a simple checklist, designed for an employer to select the elements of a workplace health program that best suit their business. They can mix and match strategies related to nutrition, physical activity, quitting smoking and stress management. The resource was ‘road tested’ with a sample of small businesses in NSW, to assess its relevance and potential usefulness. Download a copy here, or email us for a printed copy

MEDIA RELEASES

Press release: Too much screen time eating into playtime

21 November 2011
The 380-page report on the 2010 NSW Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey was released today by the Minister for Healthy Lifestyles, Kevin Humphries, and the Minister for Education, Adrian Piccoli. PANORG's Louise Hardy, the principal investigator of the survey, said the good news was that the proportion of children who were obese or overweight - 22.8 per cent - had not increased since the previous survey in 2004. Read the newspaper article.

Press release: Cartoon characters wage war on children's bellies

11 September 2011
PANORG researchers undertook a study, in collaboration with the Cancer Council, on food packaging, the results of which reveal that more than 75 per cent of promotional characters on Australian food packets spruik products to children that are high in fat, salt, and sugar. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 43(5): 349-355 View the press release

Stop The Junk

4 July 2011
Our research into the failure of industry self-regulation to reduce children’s exposure to fast-food advertising on television, recently published in the Medical Journal of Australia, sparked a tide of media items - across TV news, radio, and metropolitan and regional newspapers. Authors Kathy Chapman from Cancer Council NSW and Lana Hebden from PRC responded to media interest for over a week. Media coverage of the issue was boosted significantly by the AMA, who took the opportunity to call on the federal Government to ban junk food advertisements. Online forums also took up the issue, with articles in The Conversation and Crikey. View the article

1 April 2011
To coincide with the April ‘Food and Fitness’ issues of the ‘Child’ print magazines, Research Dietitian, Lana Hebden, looks at food advertising and children. View the article

Press release: SPANS 2010 : NSW child obesity prevalence plateaus

12 January 2011
NSW Department of Health today released a Summary Report of the results of SPANS 2010. This summary was conducted by PANORG, on behalf of NSW Health. The Chief Investigator was Dr Louise Hardy. View the press release View the Executive Summary