The Health Survey for England >2006

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Children

HSE 2005

HSE 2006

Cardiovascular
disease

Obesity in Children

Previous surveys

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Key findings from the 2006 survey - Obesity and other risk factors in children

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• 31% of boys and 29% of girls aged 2-15 were either overweight or obese. Rates of obesity were higher among the lowest income households.

• For girls this varied by overall physical activity levels – a higher proportion of girls in the low physical activity group were overweight or obese. Girls were also more likely to be obese if their natural parents were overweight or obese. This was not found to be the case for boys.

• Between 1995 and 2006, obesity increased overall from 11% to 17% among boys aged 2-15 and from 12% to 15% among girls. However, between 2005 and 2006 the proportion of girls who were obese decreased from 18% to 15% and future years’ data will show whether this is part of a downward trend. There was no significant decrease among boys over the same period.

• Other health risk factors in children include: low levels of physical activity, poor diet, smoking and drinking alcohol.

• 70% of boys and 59% of girls met the recommendations for physical activity for children (60 minutes or more, of moderate intensity, every day). The most common types of physical activity were walking and active play.

• Children’s activity levels were related to their parents’ activity levels – children of parents reporting high activity levels were much more likely to have high activity levels themselves.

• Only around one in five children ate the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. Children in the lowest income households ate the least fruit and vegetables.

• For children aged 15, 10% of boys and 12% of girls reported smoking cigarettes. The proportion with cotinine levels high enough to indicate that they smoked was higher, (20% of boys and 16% of girls).

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• The proportion of children reporting experience of drinking alcohol increased with age from 6% in girls and boys aged 8 years to 77% of boys and 79% of girls aged 15 years.