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Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The rate of obesity in Swiss children has fallen sharply in the past five years and in France it has leveled off, show two papers presented Thursday at the European Congress on Obesity 2008.

The Swiss childhood obesity rate drop is dramatic, and public education is given credit for much of the change. "“These findings suggest increased public and professional awareness, limited television advertising of energy-dense foods to children, combined with mainly school-based programmes aimed at balancing physical activity and healthy nutrition have been able to control this public health problem," Isabel Aeberli, a food engineer at Zurich’s Institute of Food Science and Nutrition told the congress.

A national survey, involving more than 2,300 six to 13-year-olds in 61 schools showed that 16.7 percent of boys and 13.1 percent of girls were overweight, compared to almost 20 percent in 2002. Obesity affected 5.4 percent of boys and 3.2 percent of girls.

The 2007 survey nevertheless shows a significant difference between obesity levels in cities with populations over 100,000 and small towns, while there was virtually no difference in 2002 between urban and other children.

The amount of mean body fat in children appears to be stable in the survey, whereas the 2002 survey show a large increase compared to children in the 1960s and 1980s.

In France, childhood obesity has been rising faster for three decades
than obesity in adults, but in 2001 a national nutrition and health
programme was put in place and this may be paying off. The latest figures show the rate of childhood obesity stabilizing.

According to Dr Katia Castetbon, head of the Nutritional Epidemiology
and Surveillance Unit at the French National Institute for Health
Surveillance, "There has been an increased awareness of the issue of
obesity in children and it’s possible that this general awareness has
had some impact." Obesity rates remain three times higher for children
measured who were in the lowest socioeconomic category.