New campaign launching on child healthy weight

Date: 17th November 2023
Category: Disability, Basic Health and Welfare

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The pledge at the heart of Obesity Action Scotland’s new campaign is ‘Child healthy weight matters to me’. The campaign focuses on the need to address growing levels of overweight and obesity in children in Scotland.

This year marks five years since the publication of the Scottish Government’s ambition to halve childhood obesity by 2030, yet the latest data shows we are heading in the wrong direction, with rates of child overweight and obesity continuing to rise and moving even further away from achieving this ambition. 

The organization notes that childhood is a critical stage and has a significant impact on health outcomes in adulthood. Evidence shows the long-term health impacts of obesity in childhood. Obesity in childhood also has a profound impact on children’s physical and mental health and wellbeing, including increased risk of high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, as well as low self-esteem and impaired social, physical and emotional functioning. These all impact on the ability of a child to live a happy and healthy life.  

Together's State of Children's Rights Report 2023 highlighted that poverty remains a key driver of child health inequality. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child echoed this in its latest recommendations by calling on the Scottish and UK Government to strengthen measures to address child malnutrition, food insecurity and growing trends in overweight and obesity including by addressing the root causes of poverty.

• Find out more here.