Obese children already seeing effect on their health

Obesity in school-age children may be having a significant effect on the health of their hearts, an Oxford University study suggests. The researchers show that obese children and adolescents have several risk factors for heart disease - including raised blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels, and a thickening of the heart muscle - compared with normal weight children. 'We wanted to look at the relationship between the body mass index of school-age children and known risk factors for heart disease and stroke,' explains Claire Friedemann, first author on the study and a DPhil student in the Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at Oxford University. 'What we saw was really quite astounding. There were big effects,' she says. The size of the link between body mass index (BMI) and risk factors like blood pressure, cholesterol and regulation of blood sugar levels has not been fully established in children aged 5-16 before. BMI is a way of seeing if your weight is appropriate for your height, and is calculated by dividing your weight in kg by the square of your height in metres.