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UK child obesity: tentative progress

Stats follow France in slow in rate of obesity rise

Posted in Children and young people, Diet, Government action on 4th November, 2009 | no responses

The National Heart Forum has published new predictions on the rise in obesity among children in the UK – showing that, although obesity will continue to rise, it is increasing less rapidly than earlier predictions.

By 2020:

  • 27% of girls aged 2–11 will be overweight or obese (down from an earlier prediction of 48%)
  • 30% of boys aged 2–11 will be overweight or obese (down from a predicted 42%)

There has also been a fall in predicted levels among 12–19-year-olds.

The predictions on data care based on data collected for the Health Survey for England between 2000 and 2007 – previous estimates were based on data from 1993 to 2004.

Reasons for the change could be increased awareness – including the government’s Change4Life campaign and greater media coverage of the issues – and local initiatives. However, there are still 1.5 million children in England who are overweight or obese, and there is a long way to go to reach the Department of Health’s target to reduce the number of overweight and obese children to 2000 levels by 2020.

Gillian Merron, Minister for Public Health, Gillian Merron, noted that ‘Obesity levels are still too high and we need to keep the momentum going. We’ll only turn the tide on obesity for good if everyone – government, families and industry – play their part.’

Source: BBC News online, 3 November 2009.

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