Obesity in Children

According to a statement just released by the Department of Health, the rapid rise in child obesity may be levelling off (see http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/News/Recentstories/DH_107835)

In fact there never has been a ‘’rapid rise’’ in child obesity. Official figures for the changes in the BMI values for school children are shown in the table below.

It is immediately obvious from these data that the BMI values for children aged 15 has remained essentially steady over the period 1995-2007.

Presumably the current DoH position is based on the conclusions in ‘’Tackling Obesities : Future  Choices – Project Report ‘’. This was commissioned by the Chief Scientific Adviser to the government and prepared  by the Foresight Group. It was  published in October 2007.

This report suggested that by 2050, 55% of girls would be overweight or obese , with only 30% in the healthy Body Mass Index (BMI) range. For boys the values were 55% overweight or obese and 45%in the healthy range.

Most of the results which I have quoted above would have been available when the Foresight Report was being prepared.  It would appear that those who contributed to this report were either unaware of this information or chose to ignore it.

The conventional wisdom is that the general health of children is poor and getting worse. In a previous blog http://vernerwheelock.com/?p=33f where I have provided convincing evidence based on the National Health Survey of England which shows that for boys aged 1-15 the percentage whose health was classified as ‘good/very good’  increased from 90 to 95 between 1995 and 2007. For girls the values were 92 and 94.

There is absolutely no indication that the health of children is deteriorating. The reality is that for the vast majority of children, health is perfectly satisfactory.

Of course a small proportion children may have health problems. However efforts should be directed at those who are at risk.

AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY IS BEING SPENT ON PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAMMES  SO IT IS INCUMBENT ON THE GOVERNMENT TO ENSURE THAT THE STRATEGIES ARE BASED ON A DETAILED AND THOROUGH EVALUATION OF ALL THE RELEVANT EVIDENCE.