Obesity in young increasing

OBESITY is on the rise among Oldham’s primary school children, according to a new report.

About one in 11 (9 per cent) reception class youngsters aged four to five in Oldham were classed as obese.

But that almost doubled by Year 6, with one in five youngsters aged 10 to 11 (19.2 per cent) said to be obese.

The figures, released by The NHS Information Centre, have come from the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP), which measured more than a million pupils across the country in 2008-09.

The study found the number of Oldham primary school pupils classed as overweight stayed roughly the same, at about one in seven pupils in both reception (13.7 per cent) and Year 6 (14 per cent) classes.

But three quarters of all reception class children (75.9 per cent) had a healthy weight, with just over three fifths (64.8 per cent) classed as healthy by the time they reached Year 6.

Nationally, just over one in five children in England start their school life overweight or obese, with nearly one in three Year 6 pupils overweight or obese.

The study also showed that nationally more boys than girls were overweight and obese in both reception and Year 6, and cases of obesity were significantly higher than the national average in the London, North-East and the West Midlands.

Alan Higgins, director of public health for Oldham, said: “Obesity is an issue in Oldham and across the country.

“It is particularly important that we tackle it among young children to prevent it from affecting their future health.

“We are currently developing a strategy with other agencies to tackle childhood obesity in Oldham.

“There are already a wide range schemes to encourage healthy eating, cooking and physical activity, which we hope will make a difference to lifestyles in the borough.”

Tim Straughan, chief executive of The NHS Information Centre, said: “These findings echo very closely the picture that emerged from last year’s study.

“They highlight the scale of obesity among some of our young children — something which may affect their future health.”

The full report can be found at www.ic.nhs.uk/ncmp.