23rd February 2018
The NCMP Local Authority Profile online data tool for child obesity for England was updated on 9 January 2018. This annual update adds data for the academic year 2016 to 2017 at local authority (LA) level. It also includes a new ‘severe obesity’ indicator, not reported on separately before. Severely obese children are at risk of developing a number of serious acute and chronic health problems. These children therefore pose a significant concern in terms of their health and well-being, and may require the provision of specialist services. Although in relative terms the prevalence of severe obesity is low, in absolute terms this represents a large number of children nationally (14,787 Reception children and 22,646 Year 6 children). Severe obesity prevalence in children has strong associations with ethnic group, deprivation and sex and there is significant variation in prevalence across the country.
The NCMP tool displays prevalence of obesity, overweight, healthy weight and underweight at local, regional and national level over time, for children in Reception (aged 4 to 5 years) and Year 6 (aged 10 to 11 years). Users can compare LA data by region or between ‘CIPFA nearest neighbours’ (LAs with similar characteristics). The tool also presents inequalities in obesity prevalence by sex, deprivation and ethnic group by LA. In addition trend data for England, for obesity prevalence and overweight (including obese) prevalence in boys and girls has been brought together in one place. A short statistical commentary can be found here
