By Claire Warrender

FIFE IS home to the most overweight children in Scotland, shock new figures have revealed.

More than a quarter of the region’s primary one pupils are classed as overweight, with more than 10% described as obese and 5% classed as severely obese.

Measures are in place to tackle levels of childhood obesity—which is associated with other health problems, including type 2 diabetes which is also on the rise in the region—but health chiefs have admitted it is a “huge challenge.”

The Fife statistics compare unfavourably with every other Scottish health board area, including Tayside, where just over 20% of primary one pupils are overweight.

The only region where fewer than 20% of five-year-olds are heavier than they should be is that covered by NHS Argyll and Clyde.

The figures relate to the school year 2005/06 but were released this week as part of the annual report by Fife’s director of public health, Dr Gina Radford.

Obesity is also on the rise among adults in Fife and more than 25% of women and 20% of men have a body mass index (BMI) of more than 30. A healthy BMI for adults is accepted as being between 18.5 and 25.

Presenting her report to members of Fife Council’s social work and health committee, Dr Radford said, “Levels of overweight people and obesity are increasing in Fife, both for men and women, but it is increasing faster for women than for men.

“What is also concerning is the number of overweight children we have. In Fife, we appear to have the highest rate of overweight children in Scotland.

“There is a huge challenge in addressing that and we have no cause for complacency.”

The 2007 joint health improvement plan for Fife contains a number of key actions which it is thought should help cut obesity and Dr Radford said these should be implemented as a priority.

She said a lot of work was ongoing in schools in a bid to hammer home the healthy eating message as early as possible.

“We have a Health Promoting Schools Initiative going on and we are trying to look at not just eating and energy in, but also at energy out through physical activity,” she said.

“It’s a holistic approach looking at the well-being of children through diet, nutrition and exercise.

“We have a number of other initiatives as well, including a new NHS target coming in for 2008/09 which will be related to the number of children who are overweight to try to prevent them from becoming more overweight. We are likely to be more successful if we are engaged with families.

“This is an issue of priority and there is an awful lot of activity in this area because of these statistics.”

Dr Radford revealed there had also been a significant rise in the prevalence of diabetes, from 2.4% of the population in 2001 to 4.1% in 2006.

“The trend is alarming and represents an increase of 72% in terms of GPs’ workload for diabetes,” she said.

“Some of it we know is due to the increase of obesity in the population. We are basically seeing a direct result of lifestyle factors.”

Conversely, rates of coronary heart disease in the region halved between 1995 and 2006, from 120 per 100,000 of under 75-year-olds to 60. The figures are on course to meet national targets by 2010, a fact Dr Radford described as “reassuring.”

Stroke survival rates have also improved and 80% of people who have a stroke survive beyond 30 days, equalling the Scottish average figure. There are an estimated 700 first and 200 recurrent strokes in Fife each year, a third of which occur in people who are under the age of 65.

Around 400 people die from a stroke each year in the region and there are around 450 stroke survivors annually—270 of whom have a continuing disability as a result of their stroke.