Childhood Obesity

23 Apr 2021 11:24 AM

In 2019, the UK Government called childhood obesity “one of the biggest health challenges this country faces”. Childhood obesity contributes to a range of physical and mental health conditions. This POSTnote outlines current trends in childhood obesity, the impacts on children’s health and access to support. It also covers key risk factors for childhood obesity and evidence on the effectiveness of policies to address it.

Documents to download

The latest data from 2019-20 reported that at the end of primary school, 35% of children aged 10-11 years are living with overweight or obesity and 21% are living with obesity. The Government’s obesity strategy seeks to halve the prevalence of childhood obesity by 2030, with a focus on encouraging individual behaviour change, product reformulation and restricting unhealthy food marketing. Policies to address childhood obesity are also in place in devolved nations. (In the research and policy fields, the term overweight is commonly used as a noun and so is used in this way in this briefing.)

Key points

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