The vast majority of parents of overweight children in England do not recognise the fact, the annual NHS health survey has found, raising fears that high levels of obesity have normalised unhealthy weights.
Nine in 10 mothers and eight in 10 fathers of an overweight child described them as being about the right weight. Almost half of mothers (48%) and 43% of fathers said their obese child was about the right weight, according to the Health Survey for England 2015, published by NHS Digital on Wednesday.
Gillian Prior, head of health at the National Centre for Social Research, said: “Around three in 10 children are overweight or obese, yet nearly half of mothers think their obese child is about the right weight. It is possible that consistently high levels of childhood obesity in recent years have normalised an unhealthy weight.
“This should be of concern to parents and public health professionals alike. Obesity is linked to a number of health conditions in later life, such as diabetes and heart disease. Parents want to do the best for their children and the difficulty of recognising obesity in their own child could be putting them at risk.”
The survey showed that child obesity remains stubbornly high, despite attempts to raise public awareness of the problem. In 2015, 28% of children were either overweight (14%) or obese (14%). This was down from the previous year, when the figure was 31% and the 2004 peak of 34%, but higher than 20 years ago, when it was 25%.
Obesity, which is defined as a BMI of 30 or more for adults, also remains high among adults. Over a quarter (27% of men and women) were obese last year and a further 41% of men and 31% of women were overweight.
The average waist circumference of an adult reached its highest ever figure – 92.9cm, or 36.57in, (88.4cm, or 34.8in, for women and 97.4cm, or 38.34in, for men) – compared with 87.1cm when the survey began in 1993. Carrying too much fat around your middle can increase the risk of developing conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer.
Almost half of women (47%) and just over a third of men (35%) were found to have a very high waist circumference, defined as a waist circumference greater than 88cm for women and greater than 102cm for men.
The Obesity Health Alliance, a coalition of more than 30 leading charities, royal medical colleges and campaign groups, said: “Obesity is still an urgent public health epidemic costing our national health service billions of pounds every year. Prevalence hasn’t changed much but the majority of adults remain worryingly obese or overweight. As our waistlines continue to increase, so do the chances of developing type 2 diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and other devastating health conditions.
“We must take bold action now by bringing in measures like the soft drinks industry levy, reducing the sugar, salt and fat from everyday foods and restricting junk food marketing to children. We still have a way to go to truly tackle this deadly and economically draining obesity issue. However, these proposed measures will be a major step towards creating a healthier environment.”
The survey was based on interviews with 8,034 adults and 5,714 children.
Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Health England, said: “Parents have been misjudging their children’s weight for a number of years, making addressing our current obesity crisis even more challenging.
“Tackling obesity is everyone’s responsibility, not individual parents and children. We’re working with industry to reduce the amount of sugar in products children consume every day as part of a wider childhood obesity plan to help them lead healthier lives.”
