merrion street

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald and Health Minister James Reilly today jointly launched the report

Some of the key findings in the report include:

• 26% of nine-year-old children were found to have a body mass index (BMI) that was outside of the ‘healthy’ range. Of these, 19% were defined as overweight and 7% obese.
• Girls were significantly more likely to be overweight (22% v 19%) or obese (8% v 5%) than boys.
• Children from unskilled manual working class households were significantly more likely to be overweight and obese (boys: 29%; girls: 38%) than their peers from professional households (boys: 19%; girls: 18%)
• Parents and children were poor at recognising child overweight and obesity: Over half (54%) of parents of overweight children and 20% of parents of obese children reported that their child was ‘about the right weight’ for their height.
• Four out of five children measured as overweight perceived themselves to be ‘about the right weight’ (78%). This fell to three in five (60%) among children measured as obese.