Obesity

Mr. Vara
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) adults and (b) children were classed as clinically obese, broken down by (i) strategic health authority and (ii) primary care trust in each year since 1997.

Caroline Flint
The information is not available in the format requested. Data on adult obesity prevalence by strategic health authority (SHA) is collected in the Health Survey for England (HSE). For adults, we can provide age standardised data for the years 1997-99 to 2000-02, and observed values for 2002-04. Age-standardised figures take account of the age profile of the population living in an area, making for more reliable comparisons between areas, whereas observed values do not. This information is given in Table 1, which has been placed in the Library.

Estimates of prevalence of obesity amongst adults based on 2000-02 data by primary care organisation (PCO) are also available. PCO represent both primary care trusts (PCTs), and care trusts. These estimates represent the prevalence of obesity for any PCO based on the population characteristics of that area. The estimates have been generated using a model-based method that combined individual-level data from the Health Survey for England (HSE) with area-level measures of population characteristics from the 2001 Census and from administrative datasets. The estimates of prevalence along with associated confidence intervals by PCO are provided in Table 2, which has been placed in the Library.

Data on obesity prevalence among children is not available by SHA or PCT. However, data on obesity prevalence by Government Office Region is available from the HSE and we are able to provide data for 2002-04 combined. This information is given in Table 3, which has been placed in the Library.