Official Statistics

NCMP and Child Obesity Profile: slope index of inequality data update, May 2019

Updated 8 May 2019

Main findings

This update shows:

• inequalities in child obesity among children in Reception (aged 4 to 5 years) and in Year 6 (aged 10 to 11 years) are widening across most English regions
• among Reception children between 2006 to 2007 and 2017 to 2018, London is the only region not showing a statistically significant increase in inequality
• London continues to have the highest level of inequality across all English regions

Summary

The May 2019 update of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) and Child Obesity Profile presents the child obesity Slope Index of Inequality (SII) for English regions for 2006 to 2007 up to 2017 to 2018.

Slope Index of Inequality (SII) for child obesity

The SII is a measure of the social gradient in an indicator and shows how much the indicator varies with deprivation (by deprivation decile based on the location of the child postcode of residence). It takes account of inequalities across the whole range of deprivation within each region or England and summarises this into a single number. The higher the value of the SII, the greater the inequality within an area.

A more detailed description of the method used to calculate the SII can be found in the PHOF overarching indicators technical user guide.

The SII figures for regions have been presented alongside the England data in a single indicator. However, they should not be directly compared to the England figures. The SII for England takes account of the full range of deprivation and child obesity across the whole country. This does not, therefore, provide a suitable benchmark with which to compare regional results, which take into account the range of deprivation and child obesity within smaller geographies.

This update shows:

• inequalities in child obesity in English regions are widening, particularly among children in Year 6
• the SII for child obesity in 2017 to 2018 among children in Reception varies across the regions in England from 8.5% in London, to 6.0% in the South West
• for children in Year 6, the SII for child obesity in 2017 to 2018 varies from 16.7% in both London and Yorkshire and the Humber, to 11.8% in the South West
• London has the most inequality in child obesity among both Reception and Year 6 children, as shown by the highest SII values
• among Reception children between 2006 to 2007 and 2017 to 2018, London is the only region not showing a statistically significant increase in inequality
• the level of inequality in child obesity among Reception children in London has remained stable over the last 11 years, further investigation is required to better understand this pattern

Background

National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP)

The NCMP annually measures the height and weight of over 1 million children in Reception (aged 4 to 5 years) and Year 6 (aged 10 to 11 years) in primary schools across England. The NCMP provides robust data on rates of children in each BMI category from underweight through to severely obese.

NHS Digital published commentary on the 2017 to 2018 NCMP data when it was first released in October 2018. It provides high-level analysis of the prevalence of ‘underweight’, ‘healthy weight’, ‘overweight’, ‘obese’, ‘severely obese’ and ‘overweight and obese combined’ children, in Reception (aged 4 to 5 years) and Year 6 (aged 10 to 11 years), measured in state schools in England in the school year 2017 to 2018.

The NCMP and Child Obesity Profile tool

NCMP data from 2006 to 2007 to 2017 to 2018 is available in this online data tool.

Prevalence of underweight, healthy weight, overweight, obesity and severe obesity for children in Reception (aged 4 to 5 years) and Year 6 (aged 10 to 11 years) can be examined at local authority level. Data quality indicators are also available in this tool, for example, rate of participation in the NCMP. The SII for England and the regions are also shown. The tool allows users to compare local authority data by region or between ‘CIPFA nearest neighbours’ (local authorities with similar characteristics).

Five years’ worth of data combined for obesity prevalence provides inequalities data for sex, deprivation and ethnic group by local authority. Contextual indicators provide local authority level estimates for several topic areas that are determinants of, or related to, child obesity. For each topic area, where possible, the information is shown by gender, ethnicity, sexuality, region and local authority.

The data indicators in this tool enable monitoring of the national ambition to ‘halve childhood obesity and to significantly reduce the gap in obesity between children from the most and least deprived areas by 2030’, as set out in the government’s 2018 publication Childhood obesity: a plan for action, chapter 2.

Responsible statistician, product lead: Caroline Hancock

For queries relating to this document, please contact: ncmp@phe.gov.uk