High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Friday, May 16, 2008
Healthy Weight
Obesity can reduce people's overall quality of life. It creates a strain on health services and leads to premature death due to its association with serious chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidaemia, which are all major risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The two major lifestyle factors associated with the growth of obesity are physical inactivity and poor diet.
Body Mass Index is the most commonly accepted measure of general obesity. BMI is calculated by dividing weight (measured in kilograms) by height squared (measured in metres). Adults are classed as overweight if their BMI is 25 or more, obese if their BMI is 30 or more and morbidly obese if their BMI is 40 or more.
In 2003 almost two-thirds of men (64%) and more than half of women (57%) were overweight (including obese). This represents an increase from 1995 when the figures were 57% for men and 47% for women. The increase was greater amongst those who were obese (including morbidly obese) where the percentage for men increased from 16% to 22% between 1995 and 2003 and from 17% to 24% for women.
Source: Scottish Health Survey
It is not appropriate to apply the adult BMI cut-off points to children as the relationship between weight and height is age-dependent. To determine whether children are within the healthy weight range their BMI is compared to the BMI percentiles of the UK reference curves (Cole T, et al.) Children whose BMI is below the 5th percentile or equal to or above the 85th percentile are classified as being outwith the healthy weight range.
In 2003, almost two thirds of children (32.1%) were outwith the healthy weight range, an increase from 29.6% in 1998. This increase was more obvious in boys (who increased from 28.9% to 33.7%) than in girls (30.3% to 30.4%). The Scottish Government has established a National Indicator to reduce the rate of increase in the proportion of children with their BMI outwith a healthy range by 2018.
Source: Scottish Health Survey
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