Britain is mired in a childhood obesity crisis, with one in four 10- and 11-year-olds officially obese. However, research led by the University of Oxford shows that all children’s weight loss efforts are now outstripping the increasing levels of weight gain in their respective age groups. But the overall increase in the number of children trying to lose weight has been accompanied by an alarming increase in those who are considered a healthy weight and are trying to lose weight. “Overall, we saw that the number of children reporting attempts to lose weight increased at a faster rate than the increase in excess weight,” said Dr Aryati Ahmad, co-lead author and researcher from Nuffield’s department of primary care health sciences. at Oxford University, now based at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin in Malaysia. “Worryingly, the data also showed that an increasing proportion of children at a ‘healthy’ weight also reported trying to lose weight. This raises concerns and suggests that more care is needed to properly target weight control messages.” It analyzed data from 34,235 children aged eight to 17 recorded as part of the Health Survey for England from 1997 to 2016. It found a “significant increase over time” in the proportion of children who reported trying to lose weight, from 21.4% in 1997-98 to 26.4% in 2015-16. The increase was from 5.3% (one in 20 children) to 13.6% (one in seven) among those at a healthy weight. There was also a jump from 9% to 39.3% for children trying to diet who were overweight and from 32.9% to 62.6% for those who were obese. According to the study, by 2015-16, around one in five children aged eight to 12 and one in three children aged 13 to 17 were trying to lose weight. The likelihood of weight loss attempts was generally higher in girls than boys, but the increase over time was only significant for boys, said the researchers behind the study. Older children were more likely to want to lose weight than those who were younger. “We found that children were more likely to attempt weight loss if they were overweight or obese, female, from an ethnic minority or lived in a low-income household,” said lead author Dr Carmen Piernas, from Nuffield. “However, weight loss efforts increased across all BMI categories, and especially among boys, older children, children of Asian descent, and those from lower-income families.” Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Writing in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, experts said there was a marked increase in weight loss efforts among children from 2011-12 onwards. This coincided with parents giving feedback on their child’s weight as part of the National Child Measurement Program (NCMP), which weighs and measures pupils when they are in Reception and Year 6. “A previous study found that providing NCMP weight feedback increased recognition of childhood overweight and encouraged some parents to seek help, but it is also plausible that this prompted greater self-management,” the researchers wrote. They said they were concerned that the increase in weight loss efforts “has not been matched by the increase in the provision of weight management services in England, creating a risk of inappropriate and potentially inappropriate weight control behaviours. “Meanwhile, the increase in weight loss efforts among children at a healthy weight raises concerns and suggests that greater care is needed to properly target weight control messages.” Tam Fry, chair of the National Obesity Forum, said: “The news that more and more children seem to be taking their weight seriously is very welcome, but this success should be greeted with a grain of salt. “The survey emphasizes that its data are estimates and not precise, but this can easily be overcome with the proposed expansion of the NCMP. It is alarming that children of a healthy weight seem to be ‘dieting’ and should be gently told to cut it short.”
