One in five children leaving primary schools are obese, says new report

By Emdad Rahman

Figures for pupils in Year  6 of primary school – the final year – show the percentage classified as ‘obese’ was 18.7 per cent in 2009/10 – nearly double that of pupils in Receptionyearof whom 9.8 per cent were classified as ‘obese’.

The NCMP measures the height and weight of children in Reception class (four to fiveyear- olds) and Year 6 (aged ten to 11 years) in primary schools in England to establish the prevalence of pupils who are ‘underweight’, ‘healthy weight’, ‘overweight’ and ‘obese’. Participation in the programme has increased year on year since it was first introduced in 2005 and now more than a million pupils take part. This represents 91 per cent of eligible pupils.

The study also showed that more than one in three children in Year 6 were either overweight or obese – 33.4 per cent. Among Reception Year children, just under one in four were either overweight or obese – 23.1 per cent.

Prevalence of obesity was higher in boys than in girls in both age groups – by 1.3 percentage points in Reception Year (10.5 per cent compared to 9.2 per cent) and by 3.4 percentage points in Year 6 (20.4 per cent compared to 17.0 per cent).

Among Reception Year children, the prevalence of overweight pupils (13.3 per cent) was greater than the prevalence of those who were classified as obese (9.8 per cent). In Year 6, the opposite was true with prevalence of overweight children (14.6 per cent) being lower than that of obese children (18.7 per cent).

Obesity prevalence is significantly higher  in urban areas than in non-urban areas for both age groups and varied among Strategic Health Authorities (SHA) ranging from 8.4 per cent in South East Coast SHA to 11.6 per cent in London SHA for Reception children, and from 16.1 per cent in South West SHA to 21.8 per cent in London SHA for Year 6.

Areas with high obesity prevalence among Reception Year pupils tended also to have high obesity prevalence among Year 6 pupils. Chief Executive of The NHS Information Centre Tim Straughan said: “This is the fifth year of the programme and participation in the study continues to increase with more than a million children taking part.

“The study suggests that weight problems continue to be far worse for older children than for younger children, with one in three Year 6 pupils being either overweight or obese and nearly one in five obese. “These statistics suggest that more needs to be done at a younger age to combat obesity within primary education and positively encourage healthy eating and participation inphysical activity, to reduce future health implications for these children.”

The full report is at www.ic.nhs.uk/ncmp