More Mersey children heading for obesity

Sep 3 2007 by David Higgerson, Liverpool Daily Post

Junk food is causing a growing obesity problem (320)

JUST a fifth of teenagers leaving Merseyside’s secondary schools are doing enough exercise to ward off obesity, new figures reveal.

Four out of five Year Ten boys and 78% of Year Ten girls claimed not to have done “exercise which left them out of breath” more than three times in any seven-day period, raising worrying question marks over the amount of PE pupils are doing.

Research carried out by the old Department for Education and Skills showed a sharp decline across the region between 2002 and the last school year. Back in 2002, 48% of teenage boys claimed to be doing strenuous exercise three times a week, compared with 31% of girls.

Separate figures from John Moores University, which did its own study in Liverpool, concluded one in three boys did enough exercise, but only one in five girls did.

Experts fear the statistics indicate the region’s obesity crisis could grow further – something borne out by the fact school uniform suppliers are now stocking larger uniforms.

The figures also suggest a sharp decline in physical activity once a child leaves primary school, even though the amount of PE time in schools has increased.

By the end of next year, schools will have to demonstrate 85% of pupils are doing at least two hours of PE a week. In some parts of Merseyside, that figure is as low as 60%.

A total of 71% of Year Six male pupils, aged ten and 11, did physical exercise three times a week, up from 55% in 2002. The number of girls of the same age doing the same rose from 39% to 62% between 2002 and 2006.

The study has in part prompted a new drive by the new Department for Children, Families and Schools, which replaced the DfES, to improve health education in school. The department will today tell all schools they must do more to help children become healthier.

Around 20% of young people in Merseyside are obese – and the fear is that, without better exercise, that figure will rise rapidly.

As children head back to school after the summer holiday, school uniform suppliers are reporting higher-than-ever demand for clothing which, in the past, would have been the preserve of adults.

National Schoolwear Centres, which has bases in Cheshire, says it now stocks blazers with 52-inch chests, trousers with 42-inch waists and shirts with 17.5-inch collars.

A spokesman said: “The overall trend is that boys and girls are getting bigger and girls’ legs are getting longer.

“For 11-year-olds, blazers can vary between 26 inches and 48 inches. There is the demand now. We have even asked for a pair of trousers with a 48-inch waist for a 13-year-old girl.”

Ruairi O’Connor, of the British Heart Foundation, said: “While we can’t expect kids to squeeze into school uniforms that are too small for them, it is a worrying sign of how big the childhood obesity problem has become when businesses start catering for our children’s expanding waistlines.”