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Press releases Saturday 15 December 2007

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(1) Different policy agenda needed to tackle obesity epidemic
(2) New legislation will lead to better drugs for children

(1) Different policy agenda needed to tackle obesity epidemic
(Unequal weight: equity oriented policy responses to the global obesity epidemic)
www.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/335/7632/1241

A different policy agenda from the one currently being promoted is required to tackle the global obesity epidemic, argue a team of international researchers in this week's BMJ.

Rather than focusing on making individuals eat more healthily and be more physically active, they call for wider action to tackle the unequal social distribution of obesity within and between countries.

They look at how the conditions within which people trade, live, and work affect health, through their influence on behaviour and weight. These include food subsidies, advertising, urban planning, employment, and social structure.

Unless this is addressed, the obesity epidemic and its inequalities will persist and possibly increase, they warn.

The need for wider policy action is being recognised, they say. For example, the WHO’s global strategy on diet, physical activity, and health identifies the social determinants of the obesity epidemic and in Europe ministers have committed to balancing responsibility between individuals and society.

The recent UK Foresight Report also highlights that most drivers of obesity are societal issues and therefore require societal responses.

But, despite these efforts, the global obesity epidemic continues and its social gradient persists, they write. Tackling it requires concerted action at global, national and local levels to promote a more equal distribution of affordable nutritious food, and improved more equitable living and working conditions. The health professions are key to spearheading such an effort, they conclude.

Two accompanying articles report on European initiatives to combat obesity.

Contact:
Sharon Friel, Principal Research Fellow, Commission on Social Determinants of Health, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK
Email: s.friel@ucl.ac.uk 

(2)New legislation will lead to better drugs for children
(Editorial: Regulation of drugs for children in Europe)
www.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/335/7632/1221

New legislation by the European parliament will improve the regulation of drug treatment for children, says a child health expert in this week's BMJ.

Over the past ten years, studies have shown widespread use of unlicensed and off-label drugs to treat children, writes Professor Imti Choonara from the University of Nottingham.

In 1999, concerns were raised about children in Europe receiving unlicensed or off-label drugs instead of ones that have been scientifically evaluated and licensed. So in December 2006, the European parliament passed legislation to ensure that drugs used for children are subject to high quality research.

It will also provide better data on the benefits and harms of drugs used in infants and children, without subjecting children to unnecessary clinical trials and without slowing down the introduction of new drugs for adults.

The legislation provides considerable financial incentives for the drug industry to study drugs in children. However, the author points out that experience in the United States has shown that the drug industry is more likely to study drugs that are prescribed extensively in adults and generate the most profit than those that infants and children require clinically.

A European register of clinical trials of drugs for children will also be established and the results submitted to the regulatory agency will be made public. This transparency is essential, says the author, if it is to benefit children in Europe.

To ensure that clinical trials in children of all ages are designed and performed with safety as a priority, the industry will need to work closely with paediatric health professionals, he adds.

Hopefully the new legislation will stimulate scientific interest in the study of drugs in children and increase the number of paediatric clinical pharmacologists in Europe, he concludes.

Contact:
Imti Choonara, Professor in Child Health, Academic Division of Child Health, University of Nottingham, Derbyshire Children’s Hospital, Derby, UK
Email: imti.choonara@nottingham.ac.uk 

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