Child obesity: Why has the situation got so bad?

23/11/21

The impact of Covid lockdowns on the childhood obesity problem has been laid bare by new NHS data.

A quarter of all Year 6 pupils (25.5 per cent) and almost a sixth of all Reception-aged pupils (14.4 per cent) are obese.

And within these figures, 6.3 per cent of Year 6 children and 4.7 per cent of Reception-aged children are classed as “severely obese”.

These figures, taken from the NHSNational Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) for 2020-2021, perhaps need to be read twice for you fully appreciate the stark reality.

It’s no wonder that Professor Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, called them “frankly disturbing”, while Dr Max Davie, officer for health improvement at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, described the rise as “alarming”.

But why has obesity increased quite so much over the past 18 months?

Click HEREto read the full article, courtesy of Dan Worth from Tes.