Obesity fears as children get fatter and taller

Children in England and Scotland are growing taller but also much fatter. The trend, confirming evidence from earlier studies, emerged from surveys conducted between 1972 and 1994 of 7,000 English and 3,500 Scottish schoolchildren aged 5 to 11.

As fears grow over the rise in obesity, the Department of Health said work was in progress to establish why.

The study by researchers at St Thomas's Hospital in south London found that the height of Scottish children increased by an average of more than 2cm while English children grew by nearly 1.5cm. But the children had also become fatter. The "skinfold thickness" showed a fat increase in all children which was most pronounced in Scotland. Nine-year-old Scottish boys grew 24 per cent fatter during the study, while 10-year-old Scottish girls became 22 per cent fatter.