Study points to rising obesity in SA

Almost a third of all South Australians will be obese by 2019, new research predicts.

A study published on Friday in the Australia New Zealand Journal of Public Health says 28.7 per cent of males and 29.2 per cent of females will be seriously overweight by the end of the decade.

That represents an increase of six percentage points on current levels.

Researchers, including Flinders University's Shahid Ullah, used data gathered on the habits and lifestyles of 51,618 South Australians over nine years, from 2003-2012, to model their future behaviour and forecast the likely levels of obesity.

Over that time the number of males considered obese rose from 17.2 to 21.6 per cent and the number of females from 19.5 to 23.1 per cent.

Dr Ullah said he was prompted to conduct the research because of concern at the growing health and social impacts of Australia's ever expanding waistlines.

"This is an incredibly important health issue for South Australia, and one that we wanted to try to do something about," he said.

Research published in 2010 showed the total direct cost of the overweight and obese in Australia was $21 billion a year.

Despite pointing to a sharp rise in obesity, the study found the number of people considered merely overweight would remain relatively static over the next four years.

By 2019, 46.1 per cent of males and 30.1 per cent of females would be overweight.