Childhood obesity level linked to wealth

OBESITY levels, educational excellence and the physical development of children are directly related to their parents’ educational background and wealth, a groundbreaking study of Irish children’s lives has found.

The first results from a Government-funded seven-year national longitudinal study of 8,500 nine-year-olds — Growing Up in Ireland — has found that the socio-economic background of parents was strongly related to a child’s fruit and vegetable consumption, reading and maths’ scores and overall height and weight.

The study, which will cost €26 million to complete, found that 23% of nine-year-olds from semi-skilled or unskilled backgrounds were classified as overweight, compared to 18% of children from professional/managerial backgrounds.