Obesity in young increasing

Obesity is on the rise among Rochdale’s primary school children, according to a new report.

More than one in 10 (10.3%) reception class youngsters aged four to five in Rochdale were classed as obese.

But that figure rose to 17.3% by Year 6.

The figures, released by The NHS Information Centre, have come from the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP), which measured more than a million pupils across the country in 2008-09.

The study found the number of Rochdale primary school pupils classed as overweight stayed roughly the same, at about one in seven pupils in both reception (14.2%) and Year 6 (15.2%) classes.

But three quarters of all reception class children (74.8%) had a healthy weight, with just over three fifths (65.6%) classed as healthy by the time they reached Year 6.

Nationally, just over one in five children in England start their school life overweight or obese, with nearly one in three Year 6 pupils overweight or obese.

The study also showed that nationally more boys than girls were overweight and obese in both reception and Year 6, and cases of obesity were significantly higher than the national average in London, the North East and the West Midlands.

Tim Straughan, chief executive of The NHS Information Centre, said: “These findings echo very closely the picture that emerged from last year’s study.

“They highlight the scale of obesity among some of our young children — something which may affect their future health.”

The full report can be found at www.ic.nhs.uk/ncmp.