2018: Childhood Healthy Weight – The Road to a Better Future

• an overview of overweight/obesity in children and young people
• what we know about factors that predispose to overweight/obesity
• the evidence for changes to the environment that are protective and the evidence for interventions to treat it.

By age five a quarter of the island’s children are overweight or obese, as are two thirds of adults. Obesity starts early in life and often related to family habits; therefore a focus on reducing childhood overweight is vitally important and makes it one of our greatest public health challenges.

The report recommends two broad areas for action:

1. transforming the environment to make healthy choices about food and physical activity the easy choices
2. encouraging and enabling people to live healthier lives.

Evidence shows that physical activity is one of the best things an individual can do to improve their health, whether overweight or not.

A key theme of the Programme for Government - helping people to live longer, healthier lives - is driving a range of initiatives to make physical activity a normal part of everyday life. Helping people live healthy and active lives will remain high on the public agenda to ensure future generations avoid long-term difficulties caused by obesity.

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Reviewed: August 2021