Obesity crisis in P1

The percentage of Lanarkshire school children who are obese or severely obese in primary one has increased.

New government figures have revealed a tiny year-on-year rise, following a survey of almost 7000 youngsters.

It means that 6.4 per cent of P1 kids have been classified as being either obese or severely obese – compared to 6.2 per cent last year.

However, the statistics for Lanarkshire are below the Scottish average.

Across the country, 6.7 per cent of primary one pupils are either obese or severely obese, up from 6.3 per cent the previous year.

Jonathan Cavana, NHS Lanarkshire’s child healthy weight programme manager, 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.

“We continue to have a package of support programmes which are based on a sustainable approach to the longterm prevention of unhealthy weight gain in childhood.

“The aim is 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.

“As well as the wide range of supports already in place, we also have new Healthy Children groups in South Lanarkshire nurseries, which are preschool healthy eating/active play/ healthy lifestyle groups for children that involve families.

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

“The Lanarkshire Healthy Weight Strategy has also recently been launched which is a multi-agency approach to tackle the significant influences on weight within our communities.

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

The latest figures for 2016/17 were released by Information Services Division Scotland, a part of NHS Scotland which provides health service data used in planning.

And the Body Mass Index (BMI) of 6954 children of primary one age was looked at across the NHS Lanarkshire area, compared to 6910 the previous year.

The survey shows 0.4 per cent (down from 0.6 per cent) were underweight; 84.7 per cent per cent were at a healthy weight (down from 85.1 per cent); 8.5 per cent were overweight (up from 8.1 per cent); 4.0 per cent were obese (up from 3.7 per cent); and 2.4 per cent were severely obese (down from 2.5 per cent).

The statistics are derived from height and weight measurements recorded at the primary one health review.

BMI assesses body composition in children aged two or older and adults. It is calculated by dividing an individual’s weight (in kilogrammes) by their height squared (in square metres) and gives an indication of whether weight is in proportion to height. Generally, it gives a good indication of body composition, but can occasionally misclassify those with heavy musculature as being overweight or obese.