Almost a quarter of Nottingham four and five-year-olds are overweight
The Nottingham city centre skyline, with the Council House in the centre
By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
Almost a quarter of four to five-year-olds in Nottingham are now classed as overweight, health figures show.
Other new statistics show people in the city can expect to live three years less than the average person in England, while a significant portion of adults and children are overweight or living with obesity.
The documents discussed at a Health and Wellbeing Board meeting on Wednesday (February 26) show one in four – 23.7 per cent – children aged four to five “are overweight or living with obesity in Nottingham”.
This increases to more than two in five children – 42.5 per cent – by the time they are in Year 6.
While there have been reductions in the proportion of adults that are overweight or living with obesity in Nottingham, the numbers “remain concerning at 63.9 per cent”.
The board, a partnership of councils and health-related authorities, set up a strategy to try to improve the health of people in the city in March 2022.
A new strategy retains the same key priorities, including smoking and tobacco control, eating and moving for good health, severe multiple disadvantage and work and health.
During the meeting David Johns, the deputy director of public health at the council, said the strategy aims to get more people talking about health.
“Everyone being more comfortable about talking about health and wellbeing, is a really key, underpinning one for us,” he said.
“We want to give people training in our communities to make sure those conversations are much easier to have.”
Reducing smoking and vaping is also a priority, according to the strategy.
Just under one in five, or 18.2 per cent, of adults in Nottingham are current smokers, and this is significantly higher than the England average of 11.6 per cent.
However, this has reduced from 20.9 per cent in 2019.
The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Smoking and Tobacco Control Alliance is being re-established in a bid to reduce the numbers of people smoking, with the ambition of cutting smoking among adults to five per cent or lower by 2035.
The council says it also set up a wellbeing service, called Thriving Nottingham, in April last year.
Funded by a public health grant, the service has supported more than 1,000 school children with healthy eating and wellbeing programmes, and a further 7,500 people have been referred for support with living a healthier lifestyle.
The service, which has around 40 to 45 staff members, also offers stop smoking support and adult weight management programmes.
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