39% of 13-year-old girls try to lose weight

Most 13-year-olds take a reasonably high level of exercise yet obesity is still a continuing problem for young people of that age, findings from Growing Up in Ireland have shown.

The Government-funded study found 26% of 13 year-olds were either overweight or obese at 13 years — 20% were overweight and 6% obese.

It also found that 39% of girls and 30% of boys of that age were trying to lose weight.

Growing Up in Ireland tracks the development of two nationally representative cohorts of children — an infant cohort interviewed initially at nine months and subsequently at three years of age, and a child cohort interviewed initially at nine years of age and subsequently at 13.

The results, which are to be published later today, relate to the older cohort with the children and their families interviewed between Aug 2011 and Feb 2012 when the children were 13.

Of the 13-year-olds interviewed, 60% exercised six or more days in the last 14 days.

Boys were more likely to exercise than girls and higher levels of exercise were more common among children from socially advantaged backgrounds.

Children with weight issues were trying to do something about it — 78% of children who were obese were exercising to lose weight.

Elsewhere, the report shows 19% of 13-year-olds live in single-parent families.

In general, the structure of families is stable, though there have been changes from one-parent families to two-parent families and vice-versa over the four years between interview.