Quarter of all British school children obese: Report

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDDec 16 2010

A quarter of all British school children are obese and by the final year of primary school, the proportion rises to a third. Experts believe that this is not even the actual figure because many children opt out of being weighed. Urban children were much more likely to be overweight than those living in more rural areas.

Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum said, “Any hope Whitehall may have had for a quick fix to the epidemic has been shattered by today’s figures… The Department of Education must rethink its recent proposals on school dinners and physical activity.” He added that the Department of Health should ‘be ashamed’ so many children start school overweight.

The figures came out after data from more than 1million children was studied by the NHS Information Centre. They suggest weight problems continue to be far worse for older children than younger children, said Tim Straughan, chief executive of the centre. They found that among 4 and 5 year olds starting school, 14 per cent of boys are overweight and another 11 per cent are obese, while 13 per cent of girls are overweight and nine per cent obese. In the 10 and 11 year olds 15 per cent of both boys and girls are overweight and 20 per cent of boys are obese alongside 17 per cent of girls.

Adult obesity in the Dorset borough, which has an estimated population of 141,200, is at 26.53% which is almost a quarter. This is “significantly worse” than the national average of 24.5%. Poole is now among 134 local authority areas in the South West which has a weight problem, research by the Association of Public Health Observatories shows.

Neighbour, Bournemouth, has faired better with a rate of 24.30%. Other parts of the county including Christchurch, East Dorset, Purbeck and West Dorset were all found to have a much lower average.

Lindley Owen, consultant in public health for NHS Bournemouth and Poole said, “If people have a body Mass Index (BMI) of over 30 they are put on an obesity register by their GP… There could be a higher number of obese adults in Poole or GPs could be more alert to the risk of obesity to health in Poole.” NHS Bournemouth and Poole has joined forces with the Poole and Bournemouth councils to develop an Obesity Strategy and Action Plan (OSAP) for the next five years. They are planning on a ban on fast food outlets operating within a mile of schools. Owen said, “In a child’s daily life processed food is heavily advertised… We know we have to do something.” He said, “We walk less, cycle less and drive more.”

These reports come as a reaction to Education Secretary Michael Gove’s decision to withdraw the annual ring-fenced funding for school sports partnerships, set up in 2006 to encourage sport and PE in schools. Mr Gove said the £2.4bn invested in school sports over the last seven years had produced a system that was too bureaucratic and of “variable quality”.

Paul Sacher, a paediatric dietician and co-founder of Mend, a social enterprise that provides healthy lifestyle programs for children across the UK, said the new data showed that there is a “childhood obesity crisis”, which is worsening. He said, “It’s extremely concerning that childhood obesity is on the increase and action must be taken to reverse this worrying trend…With nearly one in three children overweight or obese in the UK, more needs to be done to protect the health of our nation’s children and avoid the unnecessary short- and long-term financial burden of child obesity on the NHS at this critical time. We hope that these figures will urge the government to invest in further healthy living programmes, as a solution to the childhood obesity crisis.”