Australian women are not eating enough healthy food and exercising less, according to a study into women’s health.
Researchers involved in the Australian Longitude Study on Women’s Health have been keeping track of about 40 000 women from different age groups since 1996.
According to recent updates from the longest and largest study into women’s health, more women are considered overweight or obese, are not eating enough vegetables and are not exercising the recommended amount, Herald Sun reported.
Women in the 34 to 39 year old age group had gained the most weight since the last update in 2009, with 45 per cent considered overweight or obese – a five per cent increase.
And only two per cent of women in the 61 to 66 year old age group and eight per cent in the 86 to 91 age group were eating enough vegetables.
Julie Byles, the study’s co-director and University of Newcastle professor, pointed to changes in women’s lives such as career, having babies or retiring, as the reason why health outcomes varied over time.
"The women in their 60s are actually starting to become more active and a lot of this is due them giving up work and having a lot more time on their hands,'' Prof Byles said.
"It's the opposite with younger women who have more work responsibilities or are having babies and have less time to be physically active,'' she said.
Julie Anne Mitchell, NSW Health Director at the Heart Foundation told Food Magazine the issues surrounding obesity could be associated with inactive lifestyles and was largely due to the way our behaviours had changed.
“I think it’s complex, there’s no single reason for why we’re seeing the increase in obesity, it is largely lifestyle induced, we have too many machines to do for us what we used to do ourselves,” she said.
“Our environment is changing, we’re sitting in our workplace more and in our leisure time, it’s changed rapidly in the last 20 years and it’s changed how we behave everyday.”
The Australian Psychological Society believes Medicare should fund the cost of registered psychologists to provide assistance to those with chronic diseases caused by obesity.