BHF comment
Sweeping action needed to reduce childhood obesity rates
Today’s news on childhood obesity rates in England shows some positive downward trends, but swift and sweeping action is still needed to reduce the number of children living with obesity in England.
New figures show that the number of children living with obesity decreased to 9.2% for Reception age and 22.7% for Year 6 age children respectively.
However, childhood obesity rates remain stubbornly high, with the figures for Year 6 children still above those before the pandemic. There are also stark and entrenched inequalities, with rates in the most deprived areas twice as high as in the least deprived.
Research has shown that children with obesity are more likely to become adults with obesity - a risk factor for heart and circulatory diseases, such as heart attack or stroke.
The new figures were published in NHS England’s National Child Measurement Programme, an annual report which analyses the body-mass index (BMI) of children aged 4-5 years and 10-11 years.
Hearts need more protection
We are urging the Government to do more to drive progress towards their goals of halving childhood obesity by 2030 and improving everyone’s healthy life expectancy. This cannot be done without making our everyday food healthier.
We’ve been calling for delayed junk food marketing restrictions to come into effect, which would ban junk food multibuy deals and introduce a 9pm watershed on TV advertising of unhealthy food.
We have also joined a major new campaign, Recipe for Change, which is calling for the UK Government to implement an industry-wide levy on salt and sugar to help make our food healthier.
By implementing prevention policies like a ban on junk food marketing, the Government can make meaningful progress to reduce childhood obesity rates and the stark inequalities that exist. This will improve the health of the next generation and reduce strain on our health service in the long-term.
John Maingay, our Director of Policy and Public Affairs, said: “Today’s figures show that childhood obesity rates are still far too high despite some small improvements. Every child deserves to grow up in the best possible health, but children living in the poorest areas are twice as likely to be living with obesity. Children living with obesity are much more likely to live with obesity as adults, which means a greater risk of developing heart and circulatory diseases.
“The Government needs to move fast and implement its delayed plans to restrict junk food marketing to children, and it needs to incentivise businesses to produce healthier foods.”