Obesity becoming normalised, survey suggests

NHS Digital’s Health Survey for England 2015 has highlighted how the majority of parents of overweight children do not recognise their child as having an unhealthy weight.

Despite media attention on the topic, the survey, which was based on interviews with 8,034 adults and 5,714 children, showed that child obesity remains stubbornly high, raising concerns that high levels of obesity have normalised unhealthy weights.

With approximately three in 10 children being overweight or obese, the figures show that 48 per cent and 43 per cent of fathers said their obese child was about the right weight.

Gillian Prior, head of health at the National Centre for Social Research, said: “Around three in 10 children are overweight or obese, yet nearly half of mothers think their obese child is about the right weight. It is possible that consistently high levels of childhood obesity in recent years have normalised an unhealthy weight.

“This should be of concern to parents and public health professionals alike. Obesity is linked to a number of health conditions in later life, such as diabetes and heart disease. Parents want to do the best for their children and the difficulty of recognising obesity in their own child could be putting them at risk.”

The obesity figures were also worrying for young adult health, with 27 per cent of men and women measured as obese last year, and a further 41 per cent of men and 31 per cent of women deemed overweight.

In addition to this, 47 per cent of women and 35 per cent of men were found to have a very high waist circumference - defined as a waist circumference greater than 88cm for women and greater than 102cm for men.