Childhood obesity fears 'exaggerated

Government claims that childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions are "over-hyped" and "exaggerated", a thinktank claimed today.

The scale of the problem has also been overstated in the recent health white paper, Choosing Health, according to the study published this morning by the Social Issues Research Council (SIRC).

But doctors who are leading the battle against childhood obesity condemned the report as "verging on the irresponsible".

The executive director of the National Obesity Forum and professor in primary care, Dr Colin Waine, said: "This report is best ignored - it is based on flimsy science with flawed conclusions. What is important is that childhood obesity is rising exponentially - and that isn't just my opinion."

Researchers from the SIRC, which in the past has received funding from Cadbury Schweppes and Kellogg's as well as government departments, analysed official figures from the Department of Health (DoH) published in December. They concluded that the statistics showed no significant increase in the weight of children between the ages of three and 15 years old from 1995 and 2003.

At the same time the number of children with chronic disease - which includes type 11 diabetes associated with being overweight - had gone down in recent years, according to the statistics in the Health Survey for England 2003, the researchers said.

The team from the thinktank, based in Oxford, also questioned the method used to classify childhood obesity used by the DoH in the public health white paper.

The white paper relied on a UK equation which classed children as obese in relation to a weight range for their age, whereas international measures took into account both weight and height.

Rates in obesity increased to 15.5% of children under the UK method, but just 6.75% when the international method was applied.

The SIRC report stated: "We do no service to the people at risk of obesity related morbidities in our society by "hyping" their plight, exaggerating their numbers or diverting limited educational, medical and financial resources away from where the problems really lie.

"Banning advertising of 'junk food' to children and similar measures may be popular in some quarters but they are unlikely to impact much on the generation of people in their 50s and 60s - those with vastly higher rates of overweight and obesity than children and young people."

Responding to the thinktank report, the DoH said in a statement that there was a "proven year-on-year rise in obesity amongst children under 11". It was essential to tackle this to prevent future generations becoming clinically obese and running the risk of killer disease, the statement said.

"As we made clear in the public health white paper, tackling obesity is not just about helping those who are already overweight, it is also about preventing obesity in the first place."