Children’s health - A growing crisis

The results of a study on children’s lifestyles and health levels published today are another indication of how we are letting young people down, of how we seem to ignore the well-established advice around diet and exercise and, most importantly, of how very real our obesity crisis is becoming.

Over 1,000 primary school children participated and it was found that 20% are overweight and 5% are obese. Inactivity, a passive, sedentary lifestyle, was identified as a significant contributor to this life-defining situation. It may not be popular to say so but these health issues are self inflicted and parents have a vital role to play in their prevention.

In the coming months there will be great debates around a mandatory system of health insurance but in the face of the kind of indifference that allows our children become so unhealthy there’s hardly a health system in the world that could cope. None of this information is new, which makes it difficult to understand why we are not doing a lot more to confront this growing crisis.