NEWS BRIEFING: How healthy are 11-12 year old Aussies?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2019-07-05 00:01

Australia; New Zealand; NSW; VIC; SA; WA

Credit: MCRI

NEWS BRIEFING: Thu 4 July 2019 at 10:00 AEST ONLINE. A one-off health check of 1,800 Australian children, aged 11 to 12 years, has tested everything from weight and cholesterol to lung function, hearing and sleep, to see just how healthy Aussie pre-teens are. And while most are healthy, there is room for improvement especially when it comes to physical activity, sleep, snacking, weight and early signs of chronic kidney disease. In a series of studies, known as the Child Health CheckPoint, researchers conducted 20 different health tests on kids aged 11-12 from over 30 Australian cities and towns across the whole country. Researchers also tested at least one parent, to get an idea which elements of our health are inherited and which come down to the choices we make. Join this briefing to hear the results of the Child Health CheckPoint.

Media release

From: Australian Science Media Centre

A one-off health check of 1,800 Australian children, aged 11 to 12 years, has tested everything from weight and cholesterol to lung function, hearing and sleep, to see just how healthy Aussie pre-teens are.

And while most are healthy, there is room for improvement especially when it comes to physical activity, sleep, snacking, weight and early signs of chronic kidney disease.

In a series of studies, known as the Child Health CheckPoint, researchers conducted 20 different health tests on kids aged 11-12 from over 30 Australian cities and towns across the whole country.

Researchers also tested at least one parent, to get an idea which elements of our health are inherited and which come down to the choices we make.

Join this briefing to hear the results of the Child Health CheckPoint.

Speakers:

Prof Melissa Wake - Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
Dr Jessica Kerr - Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
Prof Timothy Olds - University of South Australia

***Briefing concluded - a full recording is available below***

Multimedia

Participants in the Child Health Checkpoint

Attachments

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Research The BMJ, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Video Australian Science Media Centre, Web page Full recording of the briefing

Journal/
conference: BMJ Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), The University of Melbourne, University of Auckland, University of South Australia, Monash University, University of Sydney, Perth Children's Hospital, Deakin University, Royal Melbourne Hospital, The Royal Children’s Hospital, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, University of Tasmania, Victoria University.

Funder: This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia (Project Grants 1041352, 1109355), The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation (2014-241), the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), The University of Melbourne, the National Heart Foundation of Australia (100660) and the Financial Markets Foundation for Children (2014- 055, 2016-310). MW was supported by the NHMRC (Senior Research Fellowship 1046518, Principal Research Fellowship 1160906) and Cure Kids New Zealand. See individual papers for further funding information

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