Tackling childhood obesity
By Rose Chilton Sported Insight Manager | 10th March 2020
Public Health England (PHE) has just published the latest statistics about the prevalence of childhood obesity. Shockingly, 1 in 5 children in Year 6 are obese. PHE found levels of overweight and obese children are substantially higher in certain demographics;
• Deprivation
Among Year 6 children, severe obesity prevalence in the 10% most deprived areas in England is more than 4 times the prevalence in the least deprived 10%.
• Ethnicity
Among Year 6 children, severe obesity prevalence is highest among children from Black and Mixed ethnic groups.
Similar trends in childhood obesity are seen across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland too.
Sported have 1,144 members across the UK working to address Health and Wellbeing.
What trends do we see in Sported members?
• Deprivation
Sported’s members addressing Health and Wellbeing are disproportionately based in more deprived areas. 18% of our members are located in the most deprived 10% of areas in the UK; 32% in the most deprived 20% areas.
• Ethnicity
11% of Sported members specifically target BAME participants. For a typical Sported member, approximately 18% of participants are from BAME backgrounds. This is over representative than the BAME population typically reported across the UK population (14-15%.)
What our members say:
“We particularly target ethnic-minority groups. Many of our users are very overweight and face barriers accessing mainstream-sports activities due to disabilities and cultural-needs.”
– Multisport charity, London
“We help our local district council meet national targets for health, for example childhood obesity by providing sessions specifically for young people.”
– Boxing club, Yorkshire and Humber
“The past 4 1/2 years we have worked in the conurbations of Sandwell and Birmingham in some of their most deprived areas.”
– Multisports CIC, West Midlands
These are just some examples of how our members are working to address childhood obesity within their communities. Overall, there are 1,144 Sported members’ across the UK who are focused on improving Health and Wellbeing. Between them they are using approximately 80 different sports and activities to reach over 779,900 young people.
Sported relies on the support of our volunteers, partners and donors to provide our services freely to member groups across the UK. If you’d like to talk to us about how you or your organisation can help us, please do get in via info@sported.org.uk / 0203 848 4670.
Or find out more about how you can get involved.