The World Health Organization (2006, WHO) defines obesity as a body mass index (weight for height) equal to or greater than 30. In the United Kingdom, the prevalence of childhood obesity has increased significantly. increased over the last twenty-five years. A study commissioned by The Health Survey for England (HSE) showed that between 1996 and 2001, the proportion of obese children aged six to fifteen increased by 3.5 percent, from 20 percent to 23, 5 percent of the population in this age group; there is no reason to suspect that the children of England are not representative of the United Kingdom as a whole. There is growing concern that as a result of this increase, obesity-related diseases, such as diabetes and heart problems, will eventually occur in more adults than today and that they will be diagnosed much earlier. Strong government action has been taken to tackle the problem of childhood obesity, including as one of the five outcomes sought in Every Child Matters (DfES, 2003, ECM). This was established in 2004 by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, with the intention of working collaboratively with other children's services to approach and promote wellbeing children. There is growing evidence for more detailed analyzes of the incidence of obesity by age, sex and geographic region. Using graph (i) below, produced for the National Child Measurement Program of the NHS Information Center (2009), we can see that the percentages of children falling into the categories 'underweight', 'overweight' and 'obesity' » generally remain stable over the period. all three years examined, except that there was an increase of just over 1% in the “obese” category between 2006-2007 and 2008-2009. This is, however, a worrying situation... middle of document... that is, stronger government action and greater funding would be needed to reverse the current trend. Additionally, parents need to be more aware, as Forecasting Obesity 2010 (2006) documents suggest that, among both boys and girls, a significant number of children living with parents classified as overweight or obese tend to to be obese. themselves. Little evidence yet suggests a high success rate, although Jamie Oliver has had a significant impact on healthy eating in schools. This could therefore ultimately show a stabilization of the percentage of obese children. However, this is based on limited data over a three year period and for this to be established, or even improved, will require several more years of relevant data to prove that this is in fact a trend rather than a trend. a periodic error..