Nearly 300 children in two different year groups are overweight or obese, according to a new report.
The number of children in Year 1 who are overweight or obese has risen, according to the report from Guernsey’s Child Measurement Programme.
However, among Year 5s it’s “stable”, the report from the Health Improvement Commission (HIC) said.
Ellie Gould, HIC’s Healthier Weight Lead, said: “Good health in childhood provides the foundation for health, wellbeing and quality of life throughout the life course.”
She said the results were “concerning”, especially among Year 1s, and highlighted “importance of ensuring that all children grow up in environments that make healthy eating, physical activity, good nutrition and healthy development easier and more normal from an early age”.
Evidence base
The programme, which started in 2013, records the height and weight of children in school in the two year groups.
In total 294 children were classified as carrying “unhealthy” levels of excess weight.
78% of children in the younger your were a “healthy” weight, whereas that figure dropped to 68.8% for the older age group.
In Year 1, 21.2% of measured children had unhealthy levels of excess weight, 10.6% with overweight and 10.6% with obesity.
In Year 5, 29.7% of measured children had unhealthy levels of excess weight, 12.8% with overweight and 16.9% with obesity.
One piece of good news was the more people took part in the programme this year.
Alex Hawkins-Drew, Associate Director of Public Health, added: “Data like this forms an important evidence base for guiding decisions which, we hope, will have a direct impact for families.
“Our ultimate aim is to have an island where it’s easy and affordable for the whole family to be healthy.”
