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Dept of Health

Answer

Mrs. Calton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children were diagnosed in (a) England, (b) each region and (c) each LEA as being clinically obese in each of the last 10 years. [121063] Miss Melanie Johnson: Figures for the numbers of children diagnosed as being clinically obese are not available. Obesity is normally measured in terms of body mass index (BMI). There are emerging international standards to define childhood obesity but they were developed among a population that was not representative of English children. An alternative method monitors the percentage of children who are above the 95th percentile of the 1990 BMI reference data. According to this method, five per cent. of children in 1990 had a BMI above this level and were thus classified as obese. Increases over 5 per cent. in the proportion of children who exceed the reference 95th percentile over time indicate an upward trend in the prevalence of obesity. When applied to Health Survey for England data, this method suggests that between 1996 and 2001 the percentage of children (aged 6-15) with a BMI above this threshold (representing the prevalence of obesity) increased by 3.5 percentage points, from 12.1 per cent. in 1996 to 15.6 per cent. in 2001. There is no data available by region, using this definition. Regional comparisons of the percentage of children in BMI quintiles were published in "The Health Survey for England--The Health of Young People 95-97", table 3.17, a copy of which is available in the Library. No information is available by local education authority.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

121063; 408 c543-4W;408 c543W

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Children Diagnosis Obesity

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk