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Full report: Trends in Weight Loss Attempts Among Children in England
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Authors: Aryati Ahmad, Melissa Little, Carmen Piernas, Susan Jebb
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Published by: Archives of Disease in Childhood, July 2022
SUMMARY
The researchers examined data from more than 34,000 children aged eight to 17 who participated in the Health Survey for England between 1997 and 2016. This annual survey varies every year and only surveys in which children were asked about weight loss were included. Survey results for two or sometimes three separate years were grouped together for the purposes of analysis. The researchers tracked how common weight-loss attempts were across several sociodemographic characteristics, including age, gender, weight status, ethnicity, and household income.
The study found the proportion of children trying to lose weight was increasing more quickly than the proportion of children who were gaining weight. More than a quarter – 26.5 per cent – of children reported trying to lose weight in 2015/16, up from 21.4 per cent in 1997/98. The proportion of overweight children trying to lose weight rose from nine per cent to 39.3 per cent and among obese children the proportion rose from 32.9 per cent to 62.6 per cent. However, the proportion of children considered a healthy weight who were trying to slim down also increased in the same period, from 5.3 per cent to 13.6 per cent.
The data showed children were more likely to attempt to lose weight if they were overweight or obese, female, from an ethnic minority group or living in a low-income household. For example, in 2015/16 45.3 per cent of teenage girls said they were trying to lose weight compared with 22 per cent of teenage boys. Meanwhile 45.6 per cent of teenagers of Asian ethnicity and 43.3 per cent of black teenagers said they were trying to lose weight compared with 31.2 per cent of white teenagers. In the lowest income households 24 per cent of eight- to 12-year-olds and 37 per cent of 13- to 17-year-olds said they were trying to lose weight, compared with 20.3 per cent and 27.7 per cent in the highest income households.
However, during the study period weight loss attempts increased the most among boys, older children, children of Asian ethnicity and those from lower-income families. The proportion of teenage boys trying to slim down increased by 6.4 percentage points between 1997/98 and 2015/16 while the proportion of teenage girls trying to lose weight increased by four percentage points. The proportion of Asian teenagers attempting to lose weight increased by 13.7 percentage points compared with the proportion of white teenagers, which increased by 2.6 percentage points. In the lowest income families the proportion of teenagers trying to lose weight increased by 5.5 percentage points while in the most affluent families the proportion actually decreased by 0.6 percentage points.
Data on adult participants in the Health Survey for England also showed a significant increase in the proportion of people trying to lose weight, from 39 per cent in 1997 to 50 per cent in 2015. Women and people who were overweight or obese were most likely to be trying to lose weight. However, the child-focused data showed a notable increase in reported weight loss attempts from 2011/12 onwards, including among children with a healthy weight, which was not apparent in the data for adults. The researchers suggest this may be driven by the start of individual feedback on weight status to parents or carers as part of the National Child Measurement Programme.
IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
The rise in weight loss attempts among children with a healthy weight suggests greater attention is needed to target weight control messages appropriately. While weight loss attempts in overweight and obese children have increased, the researchers say this has not been matched by an increase in the provision of weight management services in England, creating a risk of potentially inappropriate weight control behaviours. The report says weight management services for young people who are obese need to expand to meet the rise in weight loss attempts with more research into effective interventions.
FURTHER READING
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National Child Measurement Programme, England, Provisional 2021/22 School Year Outputs, NHS Digital, July 2022
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Poverty, Weight Status, and Dietary Intake among UK Adolescents, Robert Noonan, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, June 2018
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Attempts to Lose Weight among Overweight and Non-Overweight Adolescents: A Cross-National Survey, Kristiina Ojala and others, International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity, October 2007
