Memorandum by Dr Sue Campbell, CBE, Chief
Executive, Youth Sport Trust (OB 87)
1. The health implications of obesity:
— Causes 30,000 deaths a year.
— Causes 18 million sick days a year.
— Shortens life by nine years on average.
— £½ billion costs to NHS.
— £2 billion impact on the economy.
(Public Affairs Committee, January 2002)
— Obesity has been identified as a
preventable hazard to people's health.
2. Trends in obesity:
— If current rates continue in the
United Kingdom, by the year 2005, 24% of women and 18% of men
will be clinically obese.
— Fehilly (1999) reports data
showing 16% of men and 18% of women in England are obese. If true,
the prevalence of obesity will have more than doubled over 16
years.
— The number of obese children has
doubled in the past 10 years (All Party Parliament Group on
Obesity 2003).
3. What are the causes of the rise in obesity
in recent decades?
— Research shows that there was a decline
in energy consumption between 1970 and 1990 (Practice &
Jacob, 1995). Therefore, the rise in obesity figures suggest
that physical activity is a primary cause (Fox, 1999).
— An increase in overweight people
is a worldwide problem for developed countries (Flegal, 1999)
where lifestyles changes have taken place that have reduced physical
activity. We have created "obesogenic" or "activity
toxic" environments (such as lifts, remote controls and cars,
during the petrol strike 18 months ago, more people walked because
cars were less of a viable option)! In China, obesity levels are
strongly correlated with increased car use (Bell, Ge, Popkin,
2002).
— Physical activity may be most important
in preventing weight increase. Williamson et al (1993), in
a large prospective study, calculated the relative risk of moderate
(8-13 kg) and large (>13 kg) weight increases over a 10-year
period. Men who reported low activity on both occasions had a
4-fold chance of moderate weight gain whereas there was a 7-fold
chance of a large weight gain for women who were inactive.
— Genes determine who is most at risk
of obesity but appropriate environmental conditions (eg, reduced
opportunites to be physically active) are required for the genes
to express themselves.
— Metabolic rate may be increased for
several hours after exercise but frequent exercise is required
to maintain this increase.
— Most likely reasons for reduced physical
activity in the UK include a reduction in occupational physical
activity, wider car ownership and usage, a decline in walking
for transport (often due to fears of safety), an increase in energy-saving
devices, less opportunity for young people to be active (eg, decline
in walking to school).
— "There is still an overwhelming
case in favour of the conclusion that physical activity (especially
discretionary leisure-time and recreational physical activity)
is strongly related to successful long-term weight management"
Andrew Prentic (MRC International Nutrition Group, London School
of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) and Susan Jebb (MRC Human Nutrition
Research, Cambridge), 2000].
4. What can be done about it?
— The Youth Sport Trust is a registered
charity, established in 1994 to improve physical education and
sport opportunities for all young people aged 18 months to 18
years in the United Kingdom. Our series of TOP programmes have
reached:
— over 30,000 schools and
pre-school groups;
— over 300,000 teachers and
deliverers;
— every local education authority
and local authority sport recreation unit;
— over 4.5 million young
people.
— The Youth Sport Trust is playing
a central role in the delivery of a number of key strands in the
Government's Physical Education, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL)
strategy.
— The overall objective, a joint DfES
and DCMS Public Service Agreement target, is to enhance the take
up of sporting opportunities by 5-16 year olds. The aim is to
increase the percentage of shcool children in England who spend
a minimum of two hours each week on high quality PE and school
sport within and beyond the curriculum to 75% by 2006. Currently,
about a quarter of schools provide this at Key Stage 1 (5-7 years),
two-fifths at Key Stage 2 (7-11) and a third at Key Stages 3 (11-14
years) and 4 (14-16 years).
— To help achieve this, the following
targets have been agreed with the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit
and HM Treasury:
(a) establish a national infrastructure for
PE and school sport by creating:
(i) 400 Specialist Sports Colleges, subject
to sufficient high quality applications, by 2005; and
(ii) 400 School Sport Coordinator partnerships
by 2006; with
(iii) 3,200 School Sports Coordinators
in secondary schools and 18,000 Primary or Special School Link
Teachers by 2006. There will be 2,400 School Sport Coordinators
and 13,500 Primary or Special School Link Teachers by 2005;
(b) improve the quality of teaching, coaching
and learning in PE and school sport; and
(c) increase the proportion of children guided
into clubs from School Sport Coordinator partnerships.
REFERENCES
Almond, L. The Health, Physical Activity
and Fitness Status of Young People
Bell, A C, Ge, K, & Popkin, B M (2002).
The road to obesity or the path to prevention: Motorized transportation
and obesity in China. Obesity Research, 10, 277-283.
Biddle, S J H, Marshall, S J, Gorely, P J, Cameron,
N, & Murdey, I (2003). Sedentary behaviours, body fatness
and physical activity in youth: A meta-analysis [abstract]. Medicine
and Science in Sports and Exercise, 35(5, Suppl), S178.
British Nutrition Foundation. (1999). Obesity:
The report of the British Nutrition Foundation Task Force. Oxford:
Blackwell Science.
DfES: Learning through PE & Sport.
Fehily, A (1999). Epidemiology of obesity
in the UK. In British Nutrition Foundation (Ed), Obesity (pp
23-36). Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.
Flegal, K M (1999). The obesity epidemic
in children and adults: Current evidence and research issues.
Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 31(11, Suppl),
S509-S514.
Fox, K R (1999). Aetiology of obesity XI:
Physical inactivity. In British Nutrition Foundation (Ed), Obesity
(pp 116-131). Oxford: Blackwell Scietific.
Mallam, K M, Metcalf, B S, Kirkby, J, Voss,
L D, & Wilkin, T J (2003). Contribution of timetabled physical
education to total physical activity in primary school children:
Cross sectional study. British Medical Journal, 327(7415),
592-593.
Prentice, A M, & Jebb, S A (1995). Obesity
in Britain: Gluttony or sloth? British Medical Journal, 311,
437-439.
Williamson, D F, Madans, J, Anda, R F, Kleinman,
J C, Kahn, H S, & Byers, T (1993). Recreational physical
activity and 10-year weight change in a US national cohort. International
Journal of Obesity, 17, 279-286.
|
