Primary One children facing obesity passes 12 per cent

KIRSTEN MCSTAY

The percentage of North Lanarkshire school children who are at risk of being obese in Primary One has risen.

New government figures have revealed a slight yearon-year increase, following a survey of more than 3500 youngsters.

It means that 12.1 per cent of P1 kids are facing obesity – compared to 10.9 per cent last year.

And the statistics for North Lanarkshire are above the Scottish average.

Across the country, 10.2 per cent of Primary One pupils are at risk of obesity – remaining stable from the previous year.

The Body Mass Index (BMI) of 3625 children of P1 age was looked at across the North Lanarkshire area.

Marc Conroy, NHS Lanarkshire’s health improvement senior for child healthy weight, said: “Encouraging children and young people to adopt more active lifestyles and healthier diets continues to be a key priority for NHS Lanarkshire and our partners.

“It is also a central tenet of the Lanarkshire Healthy Weight Strategy, which is a multi-agency approach to tackle the significant influences on weight within our communities.

“Among the strategy’s many actions is a commitment by all the partners to implement active play and promote healthy eating and working.”

The latest figures for 2018/ 19 were released by Information Services Division Scotland, a part of NHS Scotland which provides health service data used in planning.

Statistics showed that 1.5 per cent (53) of North Lanarkshire’s P1 pupils were at risk of being underweight – down from 2.5 per cent the previous year.

The percentage of children who had a healthy weight was 74.2 ( 2691) – down from 76 per cent. Another 12.2 per cent (442) were at risk of being overweight – a rise from 10.6 per cent.

And 12.1 per cent (439) were facing obesity – up from 10.9 per cent.

Mr Conroy added: “The number of P1s who are obese or severely obese has been fluctuating for a number of years, which highlights that a great deal of work still requires to be done.

“To this end, we continue to have a package of support programmes which are based on a sustainable approach to the long-term prevention of unhealthy weight gain in childhood.

“These aim to support children and their families to make positive lifestyle choices related to food and exercise which will help them to achieve and maintain a healthy weight status now and into adulthood.

“This includes programmes which support maternal weight during and after pregnancy, as this supports positive child health outcomes, including healthy weight.

“As well as the wide range of supports already in place, we also have Full of Beans groups running throughout Lanarkshire, which are free pre-school healthy eating/ active play/healthy lifestyle groups for children and families.

“We would encourage parents to take advantage of these programmes.”

In neighbouring South Lanarkshire, where 2963 youngsters were surveyed, compared to 3252 the previous year, statistics showed that 1.5 per cent ( 44) of P1 pupils were at risk of being underweight.

This is a rise of 0.9 per cent compared to the previous year.

The percentage of children who had a healthy weight was 76.4 ( 2186) – down from 77 per cent.

Another 12.2 per cent (349) were at risk of being overweight – a drop from 12.6 per cent.

And 9.9 per cent ( 284) were facing obesity – up from 9.5 per cent.