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Childhood Obesity |
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Key messages:
- Halting the year on year rise in obesity in children aged under 11 years is a national priority and current Public Service Agreement target
- There is disagreement over the definition of child obesity. Using the UK national classification (85th, 95th cut offs) it is estimated that among children aged 2-15 years in England the proportion who were obese increased between 1995 and 2004, from 11 per cent in 1995 to 19 per cent in 2004 among boys, and from 12 per cent in 1995 to 18 per cent in 2004 among girls
- In the East of England, 14% of children aged 2-10 years were estimated to be obese in 2001/2.
- Data at lower geographical levels are currently not available for all areas but are necessary to inform local planning and evaluate the success of local obesity prevention activities.
- In 2006, the Department of health issued guidance on the collection of height and weight data (for Body Mass Index) for all primary school children in the first and last years of primary school (ages 4/5 and ages 10/11).
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Key effective and cost-effective Interventions:
- NICE guidance on the prevention, identification and management of obesity in adults and children was published in December 2006.
- The National Heart Forum and Faculty of Public health have published at obesity toolkit designed to compliment the NICE guidance and help local multiagency teams to develop and implement strategies and action plans to halt the of obesity prevalence.
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- current measurement guidance,
- height/weight data upload tool and
- analysis of 2005/6 data
Finding data on child obesity
Health Survey for England
The most commonly cited source of data on child obesity (as measured by BMI) is the Health Survey for England - a series of annual surveys about the health of people in England Data is published at national and regional level but analysis at lower geographical levels is more limited. Child obesity data is available at national and Government Office Region levels only. The 2002 survey focused specifically on the health of children and young people and gathered information on a larger sample of children and young people aged under 25 years.
The National Centre for Social Research drew on this and the 2001 survey to publish a report on Obesity among children aged under 11 years which describes trends in obesity prevalence over time and variations with various sociodemographic factors.
Health Survey for England – obesity data
Primary care data
Up until 2006, data at lower geographical levels were not routinely collected. Some areas have previously collected height and weight data on children at school entry, this data collection was not universal and was frequently not accessible for population analysis. In 2006, the Department of Health issued guidance for PCTs on collection of child height and weight data (for BMI) on all children in primary school years reception and year 6 (aged 4/5 and 10/11). First year of data collection has been hampered by poor response rates in some areas. Further details are given in Analysis of the National Child Obesity database 2005/06.
Ad hoc local surveys
Further local data on child obesity may be available from ad hoc local surveys.
Child obesity resources - reports, guidance and presentations
National diet and nutrition survey resources
Other child obesity resources
Presentations from Regional Meeting on measuring BMI in the child population:
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