Britain Childhood obesity to rise for another 40 years
By Ben Farmer
Last Updated:
1:50am BST 31/07/2007
Drive to get children playing outdoors Half of Britain’s young boys could be dangerously overweight by 2050, a leaked report claims.
About one in four 11- to 15-year-olds in Britain are obese at present
While the Government aims to halt the rise in obesity in primary school children within four years, levels will continue to increase for another 40 years, research warns. A fifth of girls will be obese, the report adds.
About one in 10 children aged under 10 and one in four 11- to 15-year-olds are obese at present.
The NHS will have to spend billions of pounds more treating obesity-related conditions, the report warns.
The figures call for a reappraisal of Government strategy, health groups say.
Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said: “For several years now, we have known the Government’s target to halt childhood obesity was never really an option. We need a fundamental reappraisal of what we do for children.”
The Government refused to comment on the report, saying that it never discussed leaked documents.
The study was carried out by a team headed by Klim McPherson, a professor of public health epidemiology at Oxford University.
It was commissioned by the former Department for Trade and Industry and is to be published in the autumn.
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