Nutrition with a Focus on Child Obesity
The Issue
Recent figures from UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children Report 2019 show that childhood overweight and obesity are on the rise almost everywhere. Today, there are 40 million children under the age of 5 who are overweight. The number of children 5-19 years old who are overweight has nearly doubled in the past 15 years.
In Scotland, almost a quarter of children are starting school at risk of being overweight or obese, with the poorest children at almost 50% greater risk than the wealthiest. With the influx of cheap and convenient processed foods in our supermarkets, what was once thought of as a problem for the wealthy is now also an issue for more disadvantaged families.
Despite the gravity of the obesity epidemic, many countries have yet to develop a successful method by which to regularly monitor the height and weight of a large national sample of children at any age. Currently, statistics are based on a combination of national health surveys, such as the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS.) To help tackle the obesity crisis we need to develop an effective, yet inexpensive, routine measurement system that can flag indicators to prevent obesity, protect children from malnutrition and promote healthy lifestyles.
Why Does it Matter?
Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that every child has the right to the best standard of health, including nutritious food. If a child is overweight or obese, it can lead to numerous long-term and short-term health issues, such as early onset type-2 diabetes and coronary heart disease.
Being overweight and obese is now the norm in Scottish adults, resulting in health and socio-economic impacts on a significant scale. If we can find better ways to identify potential indicators of obesity in children and enable early or preventative interventions, we can encourage and support a new generation to make healthier choices and inform policy more effectively. With childhood obesity being a strong indicator of adult obesity, targeting effective interventions and policies towards children may have a lasting effect into the future.
Our Project
The Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) cohort of data is a long-term monitoring project with a specific focus on the early years (0-6.) A wide range of information has been collected about children, since they were 10 months old in 2004/5, as well as their families, including: physical and mental health, home and family life and education.
Our goal is to perform analyses of this data to inform the design of obesity/overweight surveillance systems that can be used, not just in Scotland, but internationally. We will look to answer key questions including:
At what specific ages would measuring height and weight most effectively and efficiently identify children at risk of persistent obesity at ages 10 and 12?
What underlying risk factors for child obesity could be used to accurately identify cases of concern, and intervene in a preventative way, before obesity develops?
How do markers of family socio-economic status relate to child overweight and obesity? (Including child obesity unrecognized by parents?)
Are any adverse and protective childhood experiences independent risk factors for obesity?
Scotland’s target is to halve cases of childhood obesity by 2030, and better methods of regular monitoring and assessment will be vital in achieving this goal. Scotland has an opportunity to support other countries in the global challenge to reduce obesity rates, by sharing the learning from evidence-based data analyses.
Our Outputs
