One in every three year six pupils from primary schools in the United Kingdom are now either overweight or obese.
A study conducted by The Health and Social Care Information Center, gathered "unacceptably high" results. Almost 180,000 students, age raging from 10 to 11, are classified either overweight or obese according to their body mass index (BMI).
The huge disparity of obesity and health between England's richest and poorest kids is also worth noting. Predetermined by their socioeconomic status, children living in the most deprived areas are twice as likely to be obese or overweight. There are stark differences according to where children live, with 25% of children in Year 6 in the most deprived areas being obese compared to 11.5% in the least deprived.
This information is alarming, given that experts have stated that these obese and overweight kids have higher risks of having chronic ailments and condition when they grow older such as heart and cardiovascular diseases, Diabetes, kidney complications and even Cancer later in their lives.
"It's shocking. Overweight children are more likely to become overweight adults and being overweight could cause 10 types of cancer," Director of Cancer Prevention from the Cancer Research UK, Allison Cox said. "There's an urgent need for the Government to tackle obesity, starting with junk food marketing," she added.
Numbers by Regions
Some regions have notably higher percentile of obese year six pupils. Apparently, the place where the child is living plays a bigger factor than we can imagine. According to a report from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), some regions have twice as high figures as others.
Southwark and Newham, London topped the list with 43.2% of its year six students being overweight or obese. Meanwhile, Lambeth has 41.8% Tower Hamlets records as high as 41.9% and Brimmingam has 39.2% of its children unhealthy due to obesity and overall malnutrition. In Hartlepool, North East of England, 41.6% of children aged 10 to 11 are overweight or obese.
Given these numbers, it is concluded that one in every five Year six pupil across England is obese. That is 19.1% of the total population of kids aging 10-11.
Many believe that the problem really only starts at primary school and the government should act upon it immediately before the numbers get worse.
Eustace De Sousa from the Public Health Office in England, said that tackling child obesity is a "major priority" for the Government.
Contrary to the, Tam Fry, representative from the National Obesity Forum, said that cuts to local council budgets would make it more difficult to tackle the problem. "Whatever today's figures say, they are still a disgraceful illustration of the ineptitude of Whitehall to tackle one of the UK's most serious health problems," he added.