16 February 2005

Childhood obesity 'epidemic' exaggerated, claims study

A new report has suggested that childhood obesity rates in the UK may be overstated.

The research was conducted by the Social Issues Research Council (SIRC), who receive funding from food companies such as Cadbury Schweppes Plc, and Kellogg's, as well as from the Home Office and Department of Health. It compared average weights in 1995 and 2003 and found that although obesity levels are rising in older teenagers, it is still the middle-aged group that are most at risk of becoming obese.

The report stated: "We can conclude from these figures that there have been no significant changes in the average weights of children over nearly a decade. This can be taken as evidence that there has been no epidemic of weight gain, since an epidemic would certainly have affected average weights."

The research said that Body Mass Index (BMI) trends for the period 1995-2003 showed only "very modest" increases in BMI in the under-sixteens – around 0.5 for boys and 0.6 for girls.

The report also found no indication of significant changes in the number of children suffering from chronic illnesses, such as type II diabetes, over the past nine years, which, the SIRC claimed, suggested that children were not becoming fatter as fast as is widely believed.

The SIRC also criticised the government's standard for assessing child obesity, which, it claimed, was not as accurate as an international measure.

The report claimed that obesity was strongly related to age and stressed that middle-aged people and those of retirement age were the most 'at-risk' groups. The 16-24 age group are "substantially less at risk" of becoming obese, the report claimed – in fact, men in this age group were twice as likely to be underweight as obese. Those in the 25-34 age group had the second lowest rates of obesity.

The SIRC report concluded: "We do no service to the people at risk of obesity-related morbidities in our society by 'hyping' their plight, exaggerating their numbers or diverting limited educational, medical and financial resources away from where the problems really lie. Banning advertising of 'junk food' to children and similar measures may be popular in some quarters, but they are unlikely to impact much on the generation of people in their 50s and 60s - those with vastly higher rates of overweight and obesity than children and young people."

The National Obesity Forum has argued that promoting healthy eating habits in young people is still important. However, Professor Mike Kelly, from the Health Development Agency, told the BBC that even though there had been an increase in child obesity rates over the past 20 –25 years, it was still not the "real problem". He said: "The unfortunate thing is that patterns of eating, exercise and so on are set in childhood and that's why the emphasis has been on children."

(KMcA/SP)