Project to help tackle childhood obesity and poverty in Scotland

Data on childhood obesity and poverty will be gathered and analysed to tackle the problems as part of a Unicef project with Edinburgh University and the Scottish Government.

The Data for Children Collaborative will aim to better understand what can be done to address the issues and discover more about their precise causes.

Scientists in Edinburgh will look at a vast range of data, including what children are eating and their exercise habits, and how these are influenced by different settings and locations.

It is hoped the findings from Scotland – focusing on childhood obesity, poverty and population – can then be used across the world “to save time, money and lives”.

The project was first announced in 2017 and officially launched yesterday.

Globally, 40 million children under the age of five and 340 million between the age of five and 18 are estimated to be obese, while 29% of Scottish children are clinically overweight.

Kate Forbes, the Scottish Government’s digital economy minister, said: “We are in a very strong position in Scotland to deliver this type of worldleading data analysis that helps to save time, money and lives.

“I am very excited about this collaboration, through partnering with organisations that share our vision for the role of data in improving the lives of children both in Scotland and globally.”

Lucinda Rivers, head of Unicef in Scotland, said: “Unicef’s mission is to drive better results for more children but we can only do this by using the power of evidence to deliver a better understanding of some of the challenges they face.”