One in four children in England go on diets, according to research, with the proportion being considered healthy but trying to lose weight almost tripled.
Britain is surrounded by a childhood obesity crisis, with one in four officially obese children aged 10 and 11.
However, research led by Oxford University suggests that attempts at weight loss among all children now exceed the levels of weight gain in their respective age groups.
But the overall increase in the number of children trying to lose pounds has been accompanied by a worrying increase in those considered a healthy weight trying to lose weight.
“Overall, we saw that the number of children reporting weight loss attempts is growing at a faster rate than excess weight gain,” said Dr. Aryati Ahmad, lead co-author and researcher in the department. of Nuffield Primary Care Health Sciences. at Oxford University, now based at Sultan Zainal Abidin University in Malaysia.
“Alarmingly, the data also showed that a growing proportion of children with a ‘healthy’ weight also reported trying to lose weight. This raises concerns and suggests that more attention is needed to target weight control messages appropriately. “.
Data from 34,235 children aged eight to 17 who had been registered as part of the Health Survey for England between 1997 and 2016 were analyzed. A “significant increase over time” was found in the proportion of children who reported weight loss attempts, from 21.4% in 1997-98 to 26.4% in 2015-16.
The increase was from 5.3% (one in 20 children) to 13.6% (one in seven) among those with a healthy weight. There was also a jump from 9% to 39.3% for children trying to diet overweight, and from 32.9% to 62.6% for the obese.
According to the study, in 2015-16, approximately one in five children aged eight to 12 years and one in three children aged 13 to 17 years were trying to lose weight.
The likelihood of weight loss attempts was generally higher in girls than in boys, but the increase over time was only significant for boys, the researchers behind the study said. Older children were more likely to want to lose weight than younger ones.
“We found that children were more likely to try to lose weight if they were overweight or obese, women, from an ethnic minority, or living in a low-income household,” said lead co-author Dr. Carmen Piernas of Nuffield.
“However, attempts at weight loss increased in all BMI categories, and especially among children, older children, children of Asian ethnicity, and those from lower-income families.”
Sign up for First Edition, our free daily newsletter, every weekday morning at 7:00 BST
Writing in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, experts said there was a marked increase in weight loss attempts among children from 2011-12.
This coincided with parents receiving feedback on their child’s weight as part of the National Childhood Measurement Program (NCMP), which weighs and measures students when they are in foster care and grade 6.
“A previous survey found that providing feedback on NCMP weight increased recognition of child overweight and encouraged some parents to seek help, but it is also plausible that this led to greater self-management,” the researchers wrote.
They said they were concerned that the increase in weight loss attempts “has not been accompanied by an increase in the provision of weight control services in England, creating a risk of unsupervised and potentially weight control behaviors. inappropriate “.
“Meanwhile, the increase in weight loss attempts among children with a healthy weight raises concerns and suggests that more attention is needed to target weight control messages appropriately.”
Tam Fry, president of the National Obesity Forum, said: “The news that more and more children seem to be taking their weight seriously is welcome, but this success should be received with a touch of caution.
“The survey emphasizes that their data are estimates rather than accurate, but this can be easily overcome with the proposed extension of the NCMP. It is worrying that children with a healthy weight appear to be” on a diet “and are I should say softly to let them go. “