National Child Measurement Programme: Changes in body mass index in 2006-7 to 2009-10

2nd December 2011

This report presents analysis of the first four years of National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) data. It highlights statistically significant differences that can be detected across survey years in the body mass index (BMI) of English children aged 4-5 and 10-11 years.

Key findings:

• There was a small but significant increase in obesity prevalence between 2008/09 and 2009/10 for both boys and girls in both school years. As a result of a more detailed analysis than has been undertaken previously with the 2009/10 data, this is the first time that statistically significant year on year increases have been seen across all age and sex
  groups within NCMP data.
• Mean BMI has shown a more consistent pattern of increase over time within the NCMP dataset. The 2009/10 measurements appear to confirm that mean BMI is rising among English children of the age groups covered by the NCMP. This rise is observed across the BMI distribution, not just at the obese end.
• NCMP data suggest health inequalities among boys in Reception and girls in Year 6 are widening. Obesity prevalence among children who live in the most deprived areas is roughly twice that of children living in the least deprived areas.
• The increases in obesity prevalence observed at national level do not seem to be limited to specific ethnic groups. When all years of NCMP measurements are considered the Bangladeshi ethnic group seems to have shown the greatest increases over time.

The report raises some concerns about the fairly consistent pattern of increases in obesity amongst children. In order to tackle the trend in rising mean BMI across the BMI distribution it is suggested that some forms of interventions may need to be aimed across the whole child population, rather than just focused on the most obese children.
Download: Changes in body mass index in 2006-7 to 2009-10