Tackling Childhood Obesity Report is Launched

At the Launch of a LondonMet report into childhood obesity—produced in partnership with City University New York—health experts Lindsey Davies and Eileen O’Keefe both highlighted the key role that university students can play in improving community health. They argued that the leadership role students from universities such as LondonMet play in deprived communities—means that significant health benefits could be gained if policy makers did more to empower them.

The comments came during the launch of the report ‘A Tale of Two ObesCities: Comparing responses to childhood obesity in London and in New York’ at London’s centre for regional government—City Hall.

Over the past 25 years—childhood obesity rates in London and New York City have more than doubled and are proportionally higher than their respective countries’ national rates.  This alarming epidemic threatens children’s well-being, imposes an ever-growing financial burden, and widens socio-economic and ethnic inequalities within these cities.

The report presents a cogent strategy for the cities to decelerate the rise of childhood obesity and related inequality in health and compares municipal responses and recommended strategies for reversing these epidemics. Key findings of the report include:

• Nearly 23 per cent of London’s four years olds are overweight, rising to 36.3 per cent by the age of eleven.
• In New York 40 per cent of children of a similar age are overweight.
• In both cities obesity rates are higher in boys than in girls
• Poorest children have highest rates of obesity—both cities are characterised by high levels of income inequality

As part of the report launch event—members of staff from LondonMet’s Public Heath and Well-being subject area— including Livingstone Musoro, Ruzanna Gevorgyan, Jo Skinner and Friday Adejo (main picture)—lead workshop sessions in which specialists with responsibility for nutrition, education, health, transport and sport considered how they might tackle obesity through the provision of these wider public services.

“London and New York face common challenges with highly mobile populations, child poverty, and overcrowding—and the report demonstrates that the two cities’ approaches towards tackling these issues are different, and so they could benefit from collaboration and learning from each other’s experiences. ((The report launch is timely with the Mayor’s Health Inequalities Strategy nearing completion and including a focus on a number of issues explored during the collaboration” commented Professor O’Keefe.

London Mayor Boris Johnson welcomed the report saying that “a superb 2012 legacy for London would be the obliteration of childhood obesity.  We are championing effective plans across the capital to fight this and I hope that working with New York will result in leaner, fitter children and families in both our cities.”

Eileen O’Keefe