Nearly 30% of NZ children overweight

New Zealand has one of the highest adult overweight and obesity rates in the world, narrowly behind only the United States and Mexico, University of Otago Prof Barry Taylor warned yesterday.

Nearly 30% of New Zealand children were also overweight or obese, Prof Taylor, the head of paediatrics and child health at the Dunedin School of Medicine, told participants at yesterday's university division of health sciences annual research forum.

Prof Taylor founded Dunedin's childhood obesity clinic and, over the past two decades, has led studies investigating the causes of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

This latter research resulted in recommendations for safe sleeping practices and a big drop in the previous New Zealand SIDs death rate.

The latest forum is devoted to the theme "Innovation through Collaboration".

In a frank and wide-ranging talk, Prof Taylor suggested a critical first step for researchers wishing to gain funding and to engage in research collaborations was to "know themselves", in terms of their strengths and weaknesses.

Coping with a few sizeable egos and resolving some other forms of conflict were among the challenges facing young health science researchers.

In fact, he had found some of the best researchers were"incredibly modest people" who were "acutely aware" of the things they did not do well.

In 2009, Prof Taylor was awarded $2.3 million in Health Research Council funding for a three year study into the prevention of rapid weight gain in childhood.