England’s childhood obesity epidemic could be much worse than first
thought following the publication of alarming NHS statistics which show
that seven school children have tipped the scales at over 20 stone. The
figures come from the National Child Measurement Programme, an
England-wide initiative whereby schoolchildren are weighed and measured
twice prior to reaching the age of 12.
The most overweight child in the country has been revealed to be an
11-year-old boy from Manchester, who at 4ft 4in was found to weigh a
staggering 23 stone 11lb in 2011-2012, meaning the boy’s Body Mass Index
(BMI) was 84.2.
To put this into perspective; this is approximately twice
the weight of a healthy male who is 5ft 10in tall and you are in fact
medically classified as obese with a BMI reading of between 30 and 35.
Anybody with a BMI of over 40 is deemed ‘morbidly obese’ and is 80 times
more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than someone of a normal weight
and you are also likely to lose 10 years off your lifespan.
However, prior to this discovery, a 10-year-old girl from Hounslow,
West London, was one of many school children measured and weighed during
2006-2007 for the government’s yearly weigh-in of all year-six pupils.
The girl was 4ft 10in tall and weighed in at 24 stone 5lb.
Between 2006 and 2012, there were a total of seven children who
weight more than 127kg (20 stone). This included an 11-year-old girl
from Bolton, Greater Manchester, whose weight was recorded at 22 stone
11lb during 2012-2012, giving her a BMI of 69. A few years before this
in 2007-2008, a 10-year-old boy from Wandsworth, South-West London,
weighed 21 stone 10lb and had a BMI of 79.
According to a study published in June conducted by Imperial College London, the number of children admitted to hospital due to obesity-related health problems
has shot-up more than four-fold in the last decade, and it seems the
problem could spiral out of control unless an urgent intervention is
made. Asthma, diabetes and sleeping difficulties are all on the rise because of obesity.
Moreover, statistics from the National Child Measurement Programme
show that around one in 10 children are obese when they begin primary
school and a third are obese by the time they come to leave, and obesity
rates for children in the UK are the highest in Western Europe. Also,
it seems that rates are significantly higher in the more deprived
communities around the country.
Professor Mitch Blair, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child
Health, spoke to the Sunday Times and said: “Being severely overweight
at such a young age has clear physical health implications including a
higher risk of diabetes, heart disease and joint problems. In addition
there can be serious psychological repercussions. Teenage years are
tough enough without the extra burden of being obese.”
Tam Fry, spokesman for the National Obesity Forum, commented: “We
have come to accept that 26 per cent of adults in the UK are obese. But
we should be outraged that 20 per cent of children are too…We are
waiting for children to get fat and then doing something about it. What
we should be doing is monitoring them, so before they get fat we have
already started to sort them out.”
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